Andrelle Hummel

An Excellent Beginning to an Excellent Story! I first curled up with THE RIVEN COUNTRY OF SENGA MUNRO knowing I had only a few minutes of reading time, but I was curious. I found it easy to return to Senga's story, hard to lose my place with her characters because author Renee Carrier shares characters she knows very, very well. I love a book with this quality and love that I can easily find a copy on Amazon! Senga Munro, born "Agnes" into a North Carolina hill family, has been raised by hard-working, ambitious grandparents. Her grandfather made a bit of 'shine, grew a little tobacco. Her grandmother practiced the healing arts and sought a higher level of education . . . which might, ultimately, have been responsible for the family's broken/riven direction. Senga, who shows much promise, graduates from high school in the late 1970s, meets a folksinger (I never got the feeling she was in love with Rob McGhee, nor that he was a way out?), and follows him from one gig to the next. When their is daughter born just inside the Wyoming state line, "motherhood" prevails. That's the backstory, or part of it, information Carrier delivers to her readers in an expert manner, already having begun this novel with hints of Senga's current lifestyle and her beautiful relationship with nine-year-old Emily. The child is killed in a hiking accident and Senga has, for twenty years, blamed herself.. This makes Senga what she is, directs her actions, and her reactions, to others in the small northeastern Wyoming town she calls "home." Carrier surrounds her with an interesting cast -- my personal favorite being Gabe Belizaire, a bull rider from Louisiana who has an M.F.A. in Creative Writing. Rufus and Caroline Strickland, a crusty elderly ranching couple who are Senga's neighbors also share in her life, as does Joe Rafaela, a Franciscan priest who has been "advisor and dear friend" to her through the years since Emily's tragic death. And Francesca Albinoni, Gabe's Italian sweetheart and his inspiration, is also a good friend to Senga. And . . . there's Sebastian? There are others too, characters good and bad, who have parts in this story necessary to move Senga in a direction that is most important . . . the direction that will help Senga find her real bent in life. Point is, they make it all real . . . even the 19th century Indian scout (a sweet touch of magical realism!) Senga sometimes glimpses. Is he an ancestor with a warning, or a friend from a lifetime past hoping to help our Senga find her real reason for being?