How could this happen in reality?

At school we also made a project about the novel that we should present at class one day. So I decided to ask myself how this story of Jess and her dying grandfather can be put in reality. So is there a possibility that such a story happens in our life? To my mind that is possible, if you'll erase some too fictitious points in the story. Therefore, in order to show what I actually mean, I wrote this letter from the point of view of Jess.

Dear Reader,

I hope that you enjoyed the novel “River Boy“ of Tim Bowler. It is written in an unbelievable way of describing surroundings, especially the nature, and the whole story seems to happen in a place full of mystery, isn’t it? However, to be honest, such a boy living somehow in a river, wild and only depending on the nature around him is only able to exist in a fictitious¹ story or novel. That’s what we all know, but although Tim Bowler wrote a fictitious novel, there’s some truth in it.

And that’s what I want to tell you with this letter:

I’m Jess, Jess Baker and today I’m 21 years old. I live in Canada in Ottawa. My big passion is swimming and I won lots of medals until now.

7 years ago, there was an incident in my life that you, if you read the book, might know. My grandpa was the man who was my biggest friend ever in childhood (because I haven’t any siblings). It seemed always like I was the only one who understood his stubborn thoughts and doings and sometimes I think that he also was the only one who understood my thoughts and problems.

Nevertheless, he got a heart attack. I really remember this day. It was very hard for me to see my grandpa fallen in the pool. In all of a sudden I felt empty. My whole thoughts were erased in a minute by this view. I’ll never forget it. Until now it’s hard for me to say that I couldn’t guess what would happen and that I couldn’t protect him from this attack.

As Mr Bowler wrote, we, my mother, my dad, my grandfather and me, went on holiday a short time later to the place where my grandpa lived in his childhood. However this place was near South Baymouth² and not near “Braymouth”. There we lived in a cottage of Mr and Mrs White (in the book they’re called Mr and Mrs Grey). And the father of Mrs White called George (Alfred) was a good friend of my granddad from old times.

So despite all his weak of having had a heart attack my grandfather began there a painting which was really called “River Boy”, like in the novel. Awesome that this is true? J

Well, that didn’t change that my grandpa died caused by a second hard heart attack and that he didn’t want to go into a hospital, until he finished the picture. I helped him at last to finish it.

Nevertheless, I missed the time when my granddad got his second I attack because I was out for a walk in the morning. So, as you know, I swam really the whole river down (but it past only 4 hours) and reached South Baymouth at the end to see my grandpa for the last time. I failed. But no matter, this 4-hours-swim gave me that unbelievable strength to know and to understand that he had to go. Also I have the picture that helped me to keep on going. When I look deeper in it, I can see really grandpa’s face.

Today the painting is in my apartment and I have an unbelievable relationship to it. On one hand, when I look at it, it seems to me like my grandfather never died, like he’s still alive. On the other hand it tells me what it means to lose someone you really love. The body of my grandfather might be dead and might disappear, but the memories I have with him of the time that we spent together, they’ll stay, stay in that painting.

Nevertheless, I have to desperate you with the river boy in the novel. As you may think he wasn’t true. That was an invention of Mr Bowler to make the story more interesting and to draw his novel more to the mystery I feel at least by thinking about the relationship and the doings I do with my grandpa, because a person who won’t even be in my situation couldn’t feel this mystery as strong as I did and do.

That’s not a question of empathy³ and not at all a question of concentration. It is the human mind:

You can think whatever you want, but your thoughts can’t be put with the same association, with the same pictures, with the same strength in the brain of your neighbour.

Best regards and thank you for reading the book,

Jess Baker

fictitious¹= fiktiv; South Baymouth²=Dorf an der Grenze von USA und Kanada; empathy³= Eifühlungsvermögen

So to put it in a nutshell, I erased the very mysterious personage of the "River Boy" and therefore I put the painting of the grandpa more in the foreground of the plot. For the place of action I chose a real little town with a name that is mostly similar with the name of "Braymouth". I changed even the time Jess spent in the river while swimming to its end from 11 to 4 hours. Otherwise I didn't chnage the fact that Jess helped her grandfather to fulfil his painting. However, why did I decide to do so?

I think, the River Boy couldn't exist in reality because he's too wild, too metaphoric and too unexplainable. How could a teenager boy live on his own in wilderness? Without sleeping (because the River Boy is often walking through the river at night)? Without eating (There won't be any animals or great fruits outside he's able to eat without any tool of hunt? Without a house, where he lives at a cold winter? Without any clothes, except these black trousers?
I couldn't imagine that such a boy is able to exist.
Otherwise I know that such inhabited areas exist in America and Canada, where rivers flow from hills up to the sea without any city around them. So I chose such a place: South Baymouth, a town in the south of Canada near America where a lot of hills, forests, lakes and rivers without any human beings exist.
However, look at these pictures to convince yourself ;)





(Click on them for enlarging)

Nevertheless, it's my opinion that a human being isn't able to swim for 11 hours. I think that's really impossible. However, I chose 4 because that's a good time for making a marathon and I mean that's comparable with Jess swimming a "swim-marathon".
Otherwise it's also my opinion at least that it is possible to draw a painting with the advisory of an experienced painter. The painting won't be as nice as he could paint it, but with the will to do so it will be possible.

Review of "River Boy"

To review the novel "River Boy" of Tim Bowler I'll give you first a little precise summary of the content of the novel.

Jess, a fifteen-years-old girl, doesn't only like swimming, she needs to swim. It's her big passion. When her grandfather, a stubborn painter, gets his first heart attack, she's confronted more and more with the sad death of this much loved person.
However, Jess, her grandpa and her parents go on holiday to the place where Jess' grandfather spent his childhood, despite his heart attack. There, Jess is able to confront herself with the life of her grandfather which is nearly drawing to a close. The natural surroundings and especially the river near her holiday cottage help her by doing so and by understanding how to cope with such a dolorous situation.

What is it good for?

To my mind, the novel describes very well the situation and thoughts of a teenager which is confronted by such an event for the first time. So you can be really caught in this detailed examination of the death of one important person in life. The story of the novel will help teenagers, especially those who are interested in nature and swimming, to cope with the difficult issue of death and will bring it a bit nearer to them.

Editorial reviews

Chapter 20

Content:

When Jess and her parents are back at their cottage, spirit of Grandpa and coherent with that, the River Boy, is gone from this place. The ceremony at Braymouth of Grandpa is very simple and there are no things Grandpa wouldn't have liked.
The evening, back at the cottage, the family talks about what to do with the ashes of Grandpa. Jess decides with the agreement of her parents to do that what Grandpa would have said to do with him:

The next morning she takes the urn and goes up the hill to the waterfall where she met the River Boy for the first time. There she lets the ashes fall down the waterfall and dives after it.


My thoughts while reading:

I think that this chapter describes the feelings that you have when well known people leave you on your way through your life very well. It's really true that you're caught in memories and pictures of adventures you spent together with that person and that you see him in front of you, looking at you and doing usual things.
To my mind it's also good described that you want to give a dead person you loved the best last resting-place which he would have wanted and which fits to him.
To put it in a nutshell I think that this chapter expresses well the thoughts of a person or of families who lost an important person of their life.

Chapter 19

Content:

The police find Jess near the estuary mouth of the river lying on the ground. Her only will is to go to the hospital. So the police take her in the car and brings her to the hospital. While eating a toast with peanut butter in the car, Jess gets to know that she had been swimming for 11 hours and that the police instructed by her parents searches her for even a long time because they didn't think that she is able to swim until the end of the river.
When Jess arrives at the hospital she meets her parents, but both of them aren't mad with her. They're only glad to see their daughter and that she is able to cope with the death of Grandpa which comes over him half an hour ago. Jess realizes that the death belongs to every life and that the death of her loved Grandpa will be hurt her. However, she also knows that this pain will go and that life will be possible without Grandpa.
Nevertheless, also the difficult relationship between Grandpa and Dad becomes clear at the end. (Mum says to Jess that there were no more differences in the end between both of them after a short conversation)


My thoughts while reading:

The whole tension rose down in this chapter. So it gave some kind of harmony to me. I was really glad that the end of the story was realistic, because I don't like stories having an ending exaggerated happiness and harmony. If Grandpa didn't die and was healthy in a minute later, I'd find it very exaggerated. But it would be also weird for me in some way if Jess, for example, died also.
So all in all I say that this ending is a well chosen and as well a realistic ending.
Nevertheless I had question to myself when I finished this chapter. What would be the last chapter about? Is there anything to add?
For me it would make more sense to end here.

Chapter 18

Content:

The time pasts and Jess is caught in his thoughts and worries about Grandpa keeping on swimming down the river up to its end. The more Jess swims the more she feels herself tired, but then she sees the River Boy again at noon. Is it an imagination? No, that can't be. She doesn't gives up, but goes more quickly. She wants to catch him. Another hour pasts and Jess isn't able to catch him. So the River Boy disappears again from her view. But that doesn't matter. She keeps on going and arrives at Braymouth. Nevertheless after a few hours she felt herself failed and loses her will to go on. She faces the banks, but then she hears the River Boy again. He asks again: "Why are you crying?" And when Jess turns round the River Boy is just a few feet away. He persuates her to keep on swimming with him. So they swim on a short time together.
However, after this short time Jess looks up and sees that he is gone and in front of her there is only the sea. Jess reaches the end of the river and in some way she knows that Grandpa reached the end of his life yet.


My thoughts while reading:

For me this "journey" of Jess is too detailed. There are a lot of facts that won't be necessary for the story. But on the other hand I think that the thoughts of Jess and her fight of giving up or keeping on going. I made a lot of distance events (Langstreckenläufe) and I can really say that this chapter describes it very well how you feel if you're only depend on your will and your body is full of pain. So this fight of will and body is explained very well to me. I really thought about weather Tim Bowler knew this fight. I don't know.

Chapter 17

Content:

Alfred explains to Jess that Grandpa got a heart attack once more. It was such a serious one that Mum and Dad had to bring Grandpa directly into the hospital in Braymouth. So Jess' parents wanted him to look after Jess. However, she wants to follow them to the hospital. Alfred tries to keep her away from this felt will and wants her to eat some rolls his daughter made for Jess. She isn't hungry. So Alfred wants her to talk with him about the painting of Grandpa. He calls it a "self-portrait" and in a sudden Jess sees the River Boy with his black hair in the painting. She jumps into the river without any doubt to do right. Her only will is to catch the River Boy before he reaches the end of the river. She wants to solve the riddle of the boy out there and the painting. It's now her turn to put these two mysteries in an understandable coherence.


My thoughts while reading:

I was really caught by this horrible dilemma of Jess. Could she really be able to help Grandpa? Or wouldn't she even reach the hospital before Grandpa dies? Or won't Grandpa die anyway? I think this situation is really hard to stand for her, because she loves his Grandpa very well. However, I was also a bit surprised by this new way to see the painting as a self-portrait of Grandpa. I know that there are these kinds of pictures you can look at in two ways. Nevertheless I think that Jess should have seen this before.
Her decision to try to catch the River Boy and to solve his riddle of identity I really liked because that'll raise the tension of the plotline once more.