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Whistle Stopper - Where the River Ends
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List Price: $19.95
Our Price: $11.25
Your Save: $ 8.70 ( 44% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Broadway
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780767926980
ISBN: 0767926986
Label: Broadway
Manufacturer: Broadway
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: 2008-07-15
Publisher: Broadway
Release Date: 2008-07-15
Studio: Broadway
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Not his best but still good
Comment: Admittedly, I'm a huge fan of Charles Martin. I've enjoyed all his books, some more than others. I was a bit disappointed with this one in that the story seemed so similar to his earlier novel, The Dead Don't Dance. As others have written, this story was a little unbelievable at times and descriptions of the river a little too much. Still, I enjoy just reading his style of writing. And I love the quirky characters that play supporting roles, like the shotgun toting toothless woman they meet on the river. Abbie's comments often had me laughing out loud. One thing I wished for was a map of the river, maybe on the inside cover. It would have made it more interesting to follow their path down the river.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Where the River Ends
Comment: Excellent, excellent book. Charactors, scenes, mental images via words.
Cannot put down type; also causes thoughts to wander back into the pages again and again.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Amazing Love Story
Comment: I loved this book! And from living in St. Mary's GA. it was nice to read about places that I have seen or heard of. He does such a good job describing Abbie and Doss. So much so that you feel like you know these people personally. I was lucky that I am in a book club that chose this as our monthly read. And then we were able to go to a book reading and signing with Charles Martin and this book. He has such a personality and imagination that you can tell how such a great book could come from this man. I am planning on reading other books by his a well.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A compelling journey
Comment: Charles Martin writes stories about broken men, searching for redemption and healing and the people who love them.
In his sixth novel, "Where the River Ends," we meet Doss Michael, an artist who outpunted his coverage when he met, courted and married the daughter of a powerful South Carolina senator, Abby Coleman. The story is told in alternating chapters, examing their courtship, marriage and life together and their final journey together down the St. Mary's River. Ten years into the marriage, Abby finds she has a devestating form of cancer, one that is eating her up inside. She's made a list of ten things she wants to experience before she dies and Doss sets out to make them those dreams a reality.
The list isn't a gradoise list, but a list of achievable goals such as skinny dipping or the trip down the river that had such an influence on her husband growing up.
However, the trip isn't what her father wants. After four years of estrangement and refusal to deal with Abby's choice of Doss as a husband, the senator want Abby in hospice to extend her life. Doss and Abby disagree and set out on the journey.
The alternating story from the Doss's early life to the current trip works to propel the plot forward and keep the reader interested, all the while keeping the story from becoming too bleak or overwhelming depressing. Martin does a remarkable job of setting the story to follow the expected path, but also throwing in some unexpected curves along the way. At one point, art student Doss needs someone to model nude in order to finish up his degree program. Upon meeting Abby and saving her from an assault, one could assume the direction this story could head. Instead, Martin toys with that assumption and gives the reader a richer story because of it.
And even though we have an idea where this story can and must end (Abby's death), her passing along isn't the central point of this story. It's about the story of Doss, his journey and the shared life he had with Abby. While the ending will create a lump in your threat, Martin wisely allows a few glimmers of hope and healing in the final chapters to keep the ending from being overwhelmingly grim.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Inspiring and challenging
Comment: There is heartwarming and incomparable uniqueness in the culture from which Charles Martin draws inspiration. I find Martin's characters to be quite relatable. I've known people like this my whole life: guys who shed their workweek clothes to find solace and renewal in the woods or on the banks of a nearby body of water; community leaders whose own fallibility and poor decisions preclude them from continuing their previous work but who cannot stop sincerely caring for and helping those in need; overprotective, socially powerful families whose social or political ambitions prevent them from recognizing the beauty and heart of a potential son-in-law, albeit in an unconventional package; or women who desire to put their loved ones before themselves even in times of grave illness.
Those of us truly from the South don't find such portrayals offensive, we're rather proud of who we are, where we were born, and that from which we are made. We are thrilled Martin is as well and that he finds such inspiration and settings valuable enough to use as central elements in his writing. But let me be clear, his writing can speak to readers from all parts of the country, in fact from all around the globe, as is evident by the publishers in more than a dozen foreign countries who are publishing this novel in translation so that it will be accessible to more readers.
If readers have courage to hope, believe that love and forgiveness are equally important, and that everyday heroes do, in fact, still exist, then they will not only be riding right alongside Doss and Abbie through their unusual adventure, but will be deeply and emotionally moved. If, however, readers do not want to expose their own hurting places or perhaps might not be willing to examine their own lives, choices and experiences in comparison to the challenges these characters face and manner in which they work through those challenges, readers may find this novel difficult and uncomfortable to read. I encourage them to do so anyway, with open hearts, letting down their walls and leaving their anger aside. They might just be inspired and encouraged.
Martin's work is becoming more and more well crafted with each novel. He has a gift of painting extraordinarily beautiful pictures through words and encouraging readers' hearts as his characters react to the peaks and valleys life brings. Too often today, unfortunately, writers are acclaimed for doing the opposite. I find his work worthy of reading and sharing. I look forward to future novels this author will undoubtedly be bringing to market.
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Editorial Reviews:
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A powerfully emotional and beautifully written story of heartbreaking loss and undying love
He was a fishing guide and struggling artist from a south George trailer park. She was the beautiful only child of South Carolina’s most powerful senator. Yet once Doss Michaels and Abigail Grace Coleman met by accident, they each felt they’d found their true soul mate.
Ten years into their marriage, when Abbie faces a life-threatening illness, Doss battles it with her every step of the way. And when she makes a list of ten things she hopes to accomplish before she loses the fight for good, Doss is there, too, supporting her and making everything possible. Together they steal away in the middle of the night to embark upon a 130-mile trip down the St. Mary’s River—a voyage Doss promised Abbie in the early days of their courtship.
Where the River Ends chronicles their love-filled, tragedy-tinged journey and a bond that transcends all.
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