When You Live By a River

by Mermer Blakeslee

WHEN YOU LIVE BY A RIVER is the fictional story of a Catskill Mountains valley community soon to be flooded to create a reservoir for New York City. The drama centers on a farmer whose wife dies in childbirth and on the farmer's fifteen-year-old niece who comes to take care of the baby in exchange for the promise of college tuition. Set in 1931, and based in part on actual circumstances involving water rights and eminent domain, this historical novel of rural lives in upstate New York unfolds a natural love story set against a background of moral conflicts and the eroding force of modernity. Mermer Blakeslee's love of place and of her characters brings readers an eloquent testament to the persistence and courage of the heart.

198 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 23, 2012

Reviews

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ms. Blakeslee writes beautifully and evokes the time and place in which her story is set effortlessly. I had been hoping for more about the "drowning" of towns and farms to create a reservoir for NYC. There are hundreds of heartbreaking true stories to use for inspiration. The synopsis I read had me thinking the project would figure more prominently in the book, but it was really the personal coming of age story of the main character that took center stage. Our heroine is quite memorable, and I was rooting for her through every page. I found the epilogue to be poignant and a very satisfying way to end an enjoyable book.

[Ginnah Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mermer Blakeslee's novel about the Catskill Mountains Valley world of the 1930's is filled with hard realities: the displacing of farmers whose families have owned their river land for generations in order to flood their farms through eminent domain to build a reservoir to supply water to New York City. When You Live by a River is also filled with love for these river people. It celebrates their persistence and courage. Blakeslee tells these people's stories with great tenderness and not a wasted word.

Ginnah Howard 9/19/2012

[Jean V. Naggar Literary · Rating 5 out of 5]

How does your life change when you're 15 and college-bound and you find you've inherited a child? This is the event that begins Leenie's coming-of-age story in Mermer Blakeslee's When You Live by a River.

When Leenie's aunt dies in childbirth, she leaves the baby in Leenie's care, requiring her to leave home at the age of 15 and live alongside her grief-stricken uncle, Digger, and care for their new-born daughter. Leenie must quickly learn to navigate the maze that is the “grown-up” world as she experiences motherhood, love, and passion.

Blakeslee tells this beautiful story with such a tone of nostalgia, you'll wonder if you're reading a work of fiction or a memoir. Her prose reads like a memory, pulling the reader in like a river's current. Readers grow with Leenie as she discovers life beyond the normal teenage experiences, while still struggling to discover herself. When You Live by a River is honest story-telling at its best, creating an experience the reader will not soon forget.

~Jenna Enright, Summer Intern 2012

[Breena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Women come of age in all eras , in all places -- city and rural -- inland or by a river - upstate or down. Blakeslee takes us to a specific place at a specific time when all her characters must re-draw their lives in the wake of a reservoir construction. Mermer Blakeslee sees beauty in the hardscrabble and brings her struggling though ultimately successful protagonist, Leenie to the page with grace. "When You Live By a River" by Mermer Blakeslee is like a lot of rivers themselves. It flows and meanders some and rushes some and gets to where it is headed. I thoroughly enoyed this novel.

[Betty · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good story and well told but not what I was expecting. I grew up not far from where the dam was built during the time it was being built. And not far from where the villages and farms that were subsequently under the water of the reservoir. So, I hoped for more ofnthe actual history of that place and era.