River Rising
by Athol Dickson
Published by Bethany House Publishers (December 2005)
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Reviewed by Bob Pike CSP, CPAE-Speakers Hall of Fame
This book is Louisiana's To Kill A Mockingbird. Hale Poser is chaplain of a New Orleans orphanage where he had lived as an orphan. In 1927 he discovers his file in the orphanage attic, and it propels him to Pilotville, Louisiana and his roots.
Poser is desperately searching for some sense of who he is, where he came from, and who his parents were. Pilotville lays in the bayous and swamps of Louisiana, far from almost any place and accessible only by boat.
Poser gets a job as a janitor in the African-American Infirmary and is content to fit in and listen--until he saves Rosa and James Lamont's new baby daughter, Hannah, from dying at birth because the doctor was too drunk to perform a needed caesarean section. Did the janitor/reverend perform a miracle?
That's the debate until baby Hannah is kidnapped from the hospital. But who would take her? And is there a connection to the other mysterious disappearances of children over the years? Rosa is devastated and the father won't stop searching the bayous for their daughter. And Hale won't stop praying and thinking and seeking answers, not only to his own questions, but to questions people in town sometimes think about--but never voice out loud.
Can you be a slave and not know it? Can someone appear to be kind and benevolent and yet be truly evil? Can people with absolute power over another's life be brought down? Can separate but equal become equal together? Can the truth really set you free when you tell people and they don't believe you anyway? Is God listening and are prayers answered?
This book will grow on you. It will make you ask questions that need to be asked. And the reader will look for answers that are there to be found. You will see the worst side of man--and man at his best, seeking the God of the universe. Once you pick up this book you won't want to put it down until you've turned the last page.
Armchair Interviews says: River Rising made could easily make your top ten best books of 2005. It is a spectacular read; one that we believe will be read and reread, with something new found each time.