OUR TIME ON THE RIVER
by Don Brown
When David drops out of college and enlists in the army, his mother is horrified. But with a summer ahead before David must report, his father decides a “man-building” canoe trip would be a good bonding experience for David and his younger brother Steve. For a work with the Vietnam War as a backdrop, Brown’s first novel is rather light. The pair meet some girls, find a Dairy Queen in the middle of nowhere, help set up a small-town carnival, deal with an injury in an auto graveyard, and get stuck in storms. Their final stop, at the Snake Landing Bar & Grill, sends them racing for their canoe and the safety of the river. Oddly, neither brother seems affected by the trip, nor has their relationship changed. The light writing style but mature subject matter will make this appeal to a younger-than-intended audience. (Fiction. 12+)