Five Rivers Met On A Wooded Plain by Norris Barney is a contemporary literary work with extensively loaded writing and exhaustive exposition.

As usual, I fell for the cover and blurb of this book on NetGalley and ended up requesting it and eventually reading it, but as is the case with many books on NetGalley these days, this one was not what I was expecting. Understandably, literary works are heavy in prose, but this book was far too detailed and full of unnecessary exposition. The prologue itself was full of 1 sentence paragraphs with 8-10 lines in every 2nd or 3rd sentence. So many times I had to re-read the paragraphs (which were mostly single sentences) that it sucked all the joy from reading. 

To b honest, I DNF'ed it right after I finished the prologue, after having read 3-4 sentences of the first chapter because I felt exhausted and tired and didn't have enough energy to go through with it.

I won't be recommending it to anyone but if you don't mind reading really loaded literary fiction that'll probably disorient all your senses with the sheer length of the sentences and the confusing phrases, then maybe you'll be able to read this book till the very end. If you're like me, preferring readable and enjoyable prose over pretentious writing and overly comprehensive exposition, then stay well away from this book.

Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain is the debut novel of playwright Barney Norris. These rivers meet in Salisbury, England, which is the background of this novel.

The beginning is beautifully lyrical. I had no idea what I was in for, as I hadn’t bothered to read the blurb.

Five ordinary people are touched by a car accident, either as observers or participants.

One by one, we get to meet each of them through first person narrations.

First, we meet Rita, middle-aged, flower seller in the market and small-time drug seller on the side. Rita is a simple woman who’s made some bad choices. Now she finds herself alone and lonely and estranged from her only child. She doesn’t blame anyone for her failures. Rita comes through very realistically, her narration was so well done. I never judged her, I actually felt very sorry for her.

The next character we get to meet is Sam, a high school boy, who’s a bit shy but somehow manages to find love. Unfortunately, his kind and unassuming father is dying of lung cancer. This personal tragedy throws Sam’s world upside down. Sam’s anxieties and struggles to find his identity are more or less universal. Again, Norris did a fantastic job with this character as well.

The old farmer George Street is driving his car coming from the hospital where his wife of many decades had succumbed to cancer. I was deeply touched by farmer George’s story, by his love for his wife. His thoughts on love and marriage, children or better said lack of children, regrets and especially on memory made me shed a few tears.

One of the better-realised characters was Alison. She’s the wife of an army man, so they've moved around a lot. Their only child goes to a boarding school, so Alison finds herself desperately lonely, depressed, without any friends and purpose. She’s hopelessly anxious and tries hard “to pull herself together”. She’s got a bit of an addiction to pills and the occasional drink “to take the edge off”. A very familiar story. Again, I was impressed with Norris’s ability to create such a complex and layered female character. I’ve looked Norris up, he was in his late twenties when he wrote this, so, I can't help but be impressed.

The last character we meet is Liam, who’s a security guard at at Old Sarum hill. His story is the shortest but that’s not to say it’s not well done.

As it’s the case with many literary fiction novels, this is about the characters and their stories, not so much about the plot, although I loved how the characters and their stories interweaved. The little details and coincidences are exquisite. Even the title is beautiful and meaningful.

Despite being a small novel, its themes are big: the meaning of life, regrets, choice, purpose, belonging, love, loneliness, loss, and grief.

Besides the beautiful writing and the terrific characterisations, the humanity and kindness that transpired are what made me appreciate this novel so much.

Bravo, Barney Norris. Looking forward to your next novel.

Five rivers met on a wooded plain
Five interconnecting stories; each narrated by five different people who are involved in or witness an incident - each chapter narrated in turn by one of the characters, after an initial scene setting chapter, a novel interesting way of writing.
I found it took me a while to get into it but once I managed that I enjoyed the style of writing and how the book evolved. I particularly liked the character of the boy who sang in the choir I didn't like all of the characters but feel they were well described and came to life in the book , will look for more by this author. I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.