Monday, July 12, 2021

Review: Long Bright River by Liz Moore

 Dear Lit Loves,

Greetings!  I chose the book Long Bright River by Liz Moore as the book selection of the month for the book club I belong to locally.  This is a quite riveting story revolving around two sisters who once were very close and now no longer speak to one another.  Both sisters have also taken very different paths in life. Mickey, the older sister, is a police detective and Kacey, her younger sister, is a heroin, opioid addict.  Mickey has always felt that she can at least keep an eye on Kacey since Kacey is a prostitute working the streets that Mickey patrols.  The neighborhood more specifically is an area in suburban Philadelphia called Kensington.  When a string of female addicts/prostitutes begin being found murdered in Kensington, Mickey and her police department are looking for the killer.

The setting for this book is an area I personally as a southerner am not familiar with, but the author did such an outstanding job describing Kensington that I felt like the city itself is/was a character in the story. I think there are many areas like Kensington all over the country; we just don't hear about them in the news as much as a place like Kensington which appears to be an East coast hub for heroin and opioid sales.  The author, upon moving to Philadelphia, willingly admits that there is generational addiction in her own family.  She was initially asked by a photojournalist to accompany him to Kensington to write the stories that go along with his portraits of various people who are often "stuck" in Kensington.  The author also conducted free writing workshop classes at a women's shelter in Kensington.  

I admire authors who have the courage to tackle real-life issues whether through contemporary fiction like this book or through memoir which is a genre in which I write.   I think authors like Liz Moore and especially myself often have a personal connection to the subject we are addressing in our books which to me adds authenticity to even a work of fiction.  

I think this book addresses how our childhoods and life experiences often reflect or give rise to the person we are in the present day.   There is always the philosophical debate of nature vs. nurture; are you who you are because of genetics or  due to the experiences that have thus far defined your life or perhaps both?  Clearly, we have two sisters who were raised by an often abrasive grandmother after their mother dies of an overdose at age eighteen.  Their father left them soon after their mother died and it is implied in the book that he is/was an addict as well.  So while Kacey would most likely argue that her addiction could be genetic since both parents were addicts, I think Mickey would argue that she was raised in the same household and became a functional, productive adult even with the same set of parents.  Personally, I think addiction whether it is alcohol, illegal substances, opioids, etc. has some element of genetics linked to it.    And I think also that our life experiences shape our character, values, and views.  I often wonder if the grandmother who raised Mickey and Kacey would have been a completely different person if she had not lost her husband so early in their marriage and then also lost her daughter to opioid addiction.    One of the most dramatic moments in the book is when the grandmother, Gee, discovers Kacey is in the hospital due to an overdoes.  Gee walks into the hospital, firmly looks Kacey in the eyes, and says she is not going through this process again.  She then drags Kacey from the hospital bed and takes her home.  Once they get home, Gee smacks Kacey.  At that point, Gee is of the opinion that Kacey can get her life together or get out of Gee's home.  Talk about an authoritarian parenting style.  

Also, I think this book demonstrates how the family, friends, acquaintances, and community are affected by having a family member who is also an addict.  Some families take Gee's approach to a family member who is an addict while other families may live in denial that anything is wrong with the family member.  And an addicts' friends are usually other addicts.  I got the feeling that many addicts watch or hear about their friends' overdose deaths and in some cases even witness an overdose death.  The community of Kensington as a whole has become a seedy, dangerous place to reside because of the heroin and opioid trade.  Through some of the pictures I found of the Kensington population, of which many were taken from the photojournalist who documented the people of Kensington, many appear shell-shocked, broken, and physically/emotionally ravaged.  On the other hand, you have the dealers, street drug sellers who appear to be making a fine living off the drug trade.  Families who have homes around the Kensington community appear to remain in their homes or only let their children play on their porches.  The police seem resigned that the drug culture in Kensington is here to stay.  One police officer said that as soon as he arrests one drug seller another one will take his/her place by the time he can book the one he has at the police station.

Through one newspaper article I read after reading this book, it appears the city even eliminated the subway or train stop for Kensington during the pandemic.  People still kept coming.  And then you have the children of addicts who are born addicted to a drug and go through withdrawal in a neonatal intensive care unit.  Most addicts can't take care of themselves much less be responsible for a child so the child either is taken in by a family member, is placed up for adoption, or is deposited in the foster care system.  One drug dealer who was interviewed by a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper says, "One day America is going to regret allowing this to happen.  I can't believe I am getting away with making a living this way in the United States!"  

The book also addresses the rampant corruption within many police forces.  While this brought to mind the death of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, it also made me wonder if some police officers are also customers/drug users as well.  Are any of the officers offering to not arrest someone in return for a sexual favor?  In the book, finding a person or woman dead along train tracks often appeared like an everyday, routine occurrence for the officers and paramedics.   I could see this being the case for a medical examiner, but when the police become immune to discovering a dead body, is it a way of coping with that part of the job or is it because he/she no longer cares?  Or worse, could a police officer have committed the murder and covered his/her tracks especially well?  The book definitely makes you wonder if the police are often complicit in the drug culture within Kensington or elsewhere for that matter.

I love books that bring to light an important issue like the opioid crisis.  My own extended family has vividly witnessed the effects of a family member's opioid addiction.  And I have a cousin who works as a nurse in the Emergency Room of a hospital and he often tells me about how paramedics completely run out of Nar-Con (I think that is the name of the drug used to revive an overdose victim).  And he has even said the hospital where he works has come dangerously close to not having enough Nar-Con to revive the mounting number of overdose victims that are brought to the Emergency Room,

Many folks were intimidated by this book just for its sheer length, but I would rather have a well-developed novel that keeps me turning the pages and wondering what happens to the main characters than one that has little character development or a novel that is formulaic.

Liz Moore handled the opioid issue respectfully throughout the book.  And she made me really truly think about how our country could handle the opioid crisis and what or if anything could have been done to save all the lost souls who died because of opioid addiction.   It's a stunning reality and it's not going away on its own or because people choose to look away.  I highly recommend this book.  It is gritty and not for the faint of heart, but it brings the opioid crisis up close and personal.  Sometimes that is what it takes to shed light on a problem that is manifesting all over America today.

Best,

Grace

(Amy)