A Series of Small Maneuvers

by Eliot Treichel

Overview

For 15-year-old Emma Wilson, everything is changing. Uncomfortable at home and in school, Emma’s growing up, and feels isolated from her friends and family. Things go from bad to unfathomably worse when Emma inadvertently causes an accident that kills her increasingly distant father on a spring break canoe trip meant to bring them closer together.

Suddenly, Emma's efforts to reconcile with her father as a parent and a person have to happen without him, and she must confront her guilt and her grief to begin moving forward. With the help of river rats, ranch hands, and her horse, Magic, Emma finds strength in herself as she and her family navigate their reentry into “normal” life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781932010794
Publisher:	Ooligan Press
Publication date:	11/01/2015
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Eliot Treichel is a native of Wisconsin who now lives in Eugene, Oregon. His first book, Close Is Fine, is the winner of the Wisconsin Library Association Literary Award. His fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in Beloit Fiction Journal, CutBank, Passages North, Southern Indiana Review, and Hawai’i Pacific Review. He’s also written for Canoe & Kayak, Paddler, and Eugene Magazine. For more information, visit his website at www.eliottreichel.com.

Read an Excerpt

I kept picturing myself alone in the canoe, swept into the rapid, out of control. I could see waves breaking into the boat, could feel the panicked strokes that had no effect. The boat dropping into the hole, then flipping over quick as a blink. The plunging, the getting held under, the being unable to breathe. “I just keep getting this feeling,” I said.

“We don’t have to run it. You and I can walk down to the bottom and meet them if you want,” Alex said.

“It’s not that,” I said. My dad would’ve given me the same option about portaging, although it likely would’ve come with a catch, like some cranky comment later in the day, or some glint of disappointment in his eyes that I wasn’t supposed to see. Upset was supposed to have been the grand finale of the trip, the hardest rapid we’d run together. And having survived it as a team, it was supposed to translate into something else—some deeper trust and closeness between us, or some confidence and wisdom and test-taking finesse that I was supposed to be able to use to dominate life in high school.

Sometimes I’m not sure what I would’ve said to my dad. It was different in a canoe than a raft. Sometimes when I think about it, I imagine that I probably would’ve said portage, or that I would’ve wanted to take the sneak route—options, as it turns out, that don’t work so well in real life.

Other times—most times now—I see that I would’ve said yes. Yes, because he would’ve taken the time to show me the line again, tracing it down through the wave train and past the hole, picking out our markers so we wouldn’t get lost once we were in it. He would’ve turned the big rapid into something doable, something orderly and reasonable. It was just a series of small maneuvers that would add up to something larger. That’s how you had to view it.

Editorial Reviews

After her father’s death, stemming from an accident while exploring the remote Rio Tinto in New Mexico, 15-year-old Emma Wilson travels alone through rapids and dangerous temperatures to safety. But even at home with her grieving mother and younger sister, Emma cannot find peace after an incident she takes responsibility for (“Please don’t ever tell me that accidents just happen”), no matter what her family and the police say. Treichel (Close Is Fine) switches between Emma’s past and present, recounting her memories of an emotional and contradictory father on the verge of divorce, her time on the river, and her difficult readjustment to school and friends, all while focusing on language that underlines the beauty of the natural world instilled in Emma by her father (“The early morning light was the color of ripe peaches”). While technical descriptions of canoeing and camping may stymie outdoor novices, Treichel’s realistic and compelling characterization of Emma highlights a maturity into adulthood that offers no easy solutions to the difficulties of grief, but celebrates the best of her family. Ages 12–up.

From the Publisher

I'd go so far as to say it's one of the best books I've read this year, in any genre.

Melanie Bishop

I'd go so far as to say it's one of the best books I've read this year, in any genre.

Melanie Bishop Huffington Post