Push Not the River by James Conroyd Martin

(Posted for Ann Roberts)

This book is further proof that I will read anything. I make this confession far too often. I recently purchased this book for 50 cents at the office booksale and therefore felt compelled to read it, having paid good money for it!  Push Not the River is based on the eighteenth century diary of Anna Maria Berezowska, a Polish countess who lived through the rise and fall of the historic Third of May Constitution (1791), which attempted to take away some of the disproportionate rights and privileges awarded to nobility in Poland. The adoption of the May 3rd Constitution precipitated the hostility of neighboring Russia, and it is the events leading up to the invasion and consequent fighting with Russia against which this story is set.  The events in the story itself are interesting enough, but the way in which the writer portrayed the events, make it little more than a bodice ripper. Bodices are ripped, with and without consent, and because the characters are so flat it is difficult to empathize with their plight.  Right down to the flashing green eyes (minus the “fiddle dee dee” attitude), the heroine is an 18^th century, Eastern European, Scarlett O’Hara. She survives many hardships and barely escapes with her life in a crazy “fleeing from the Russians over a burning collapsing bridge” ending, but who cares? And I read the entire book.

Paperback, 416 pages