Does 'Go As A River' Have A Happy Ending?

I wanted to read Go as a River to see how author Jenny Valentine handled the ending of her protagonist’s brutal and extremely difficult journey. It was hard reading, not just because of the issues facing the protagonist, but also because of the way she lost so much. But ultimately, she rebuilds her life and after many, many heartbreaking chapters, the protagonist manages to find a fragile, hard-won and utterly impermanent peace. It’s a wonderful read in that, unlike many novels for younger people, it eschews the fairy-tale ending in favor of something more realistic, more human.

The story follows a hard-won contentment rather than happiness, and we see that through the relationships of the various supporting characters, including some unexpected allies. The relationships are all imperfect and feel like they are earned by the characters, and there is no cheap redemption for anyone. So if you are expecting a happy ending to this story, you may be disappointed. But if you are looking for a story where the characters’ survival is the triumph then this will satisfy you. It is rather like watching a sunrise after a storm – the colors may not be as brilliant as they were before the storm but they are there nonetheless.

My view is that the book ends on a quietly hopeful note. After having been left by her lover, and then losing her daughter, the protagonist creates a space for herself to live and to come to terms with her loss. The ending is not a happy one in the conventional sense. Rather, it is a hopeful one, founded on the human spirit’s ability to create something of value out of despair. It is hopeful in a gritty sort of way. The book’s characterization is true to life in that all the relationships in the book are flawed but real. Importantly, the book’s structure is also true to life in that not everything is tied up in a neat bow. Some losses are losses for good. But in the midst of all that pain and loss, there are moments of joy in the book. A simple shared meal with friends, the planting of a new sapling, for example. These moments are triumphant because they are won against the odds of human suffering. For me, that makes them a happy ending for people who see surviving as joyous in itself.

As a mood reader I would assign the ending a “autumnal hopeful” mood. That ending has a golden light of late day. We no longer have the fierce energy of summer (the heroine’s youth) to deal with, nor the destructive force of nature (the flood) that threatened to destroy everything. Now we are left with the crisp air, the harvested fields of gold, and the sense of readied stagnation that winter brings. There’s a lot of beauty in that, and hope in the heroine’s having made it through the year’s hardships. And yes, there is a sense of the cycle of life and death having been completed, of decline having been acknowledged. But that is a beautiful, specific mood and it is one that the ending achieves perfectly. (This won’t be a “spring” or “blossom” ending type of reader, but it will be perfect for a certain type of reader.)

I keep returning to the image of the peaches. So powerful a symbol. The original trees of peaches had long since been drowned but she had planted out new ones from the pits she had managed to salvage. The fruit was similar but the trees grew in a new place. That was the end of the original happiness of her youth but from the seeds of that life she had managed to cultivate a new happiness. It was recognizable yet different. It was real and sweet yet it grew from the earth of a buried town. That one symbol answered my question about whether or not it was a happy ending: yes, it was a happy ending, transplanted, grown in difficult circumstances but there nonetheless and with the taste of the soil of its origins.