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Summary
Summary
In Lisa Michaels's enthralling debut novel, she weaves the tale of two young newlyweds, Glen and Bessie Hyde, who set out in 1928 to run the rapids of the Grand Canyon. The pair hoped to set a record: Bessie would be the first woman to negotiate that treacherous stretch of the Colorado River. When they failed to appear at their destination on time, Glen's father mounted a desperate search to find them. Based on the few known facts of a true story, Grand Ambition contemplates our need for risk and danger, and treats with great complexity the power of youthful passion. Reading Group Guide included.
Author Notes
Lisa Michaels lives in Northern California.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
A perilous 1928 expedition provides the historical inspiration for this solid, low-key novel by Michaels, a poet and memoirist. More than 70 years ago, spurred on by Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic, newlyweds Glen and Bessie Hyde went rafting down the Colorado River. If they made it, Bessie would be the first woman to run the dangerous rapids, but the expedition ended in disaster: the Hydes disappeared before they reached Needles, Calif., the endpoint of their journey. Michaels divides the story between an account of the young couple's tragic adventure and the tale of Glen's father, Reith, who mounted an unsuccessful search party to find them. Glen Hyde is an uncommon man thoroughly open-minded, but also ignorant of normal fears and sometimes maddeningly literal. Bessie Hyde, n?e Haley, has had a more varied experience than her husband, and her history is revealed in flashbacks. Married before, she fled her first husband to go to art school in San Francisco. When she meets Glen, she is impressed by his "most unusual composure." Rafting through spectacularly dangerous rapids, she begins to feel that Glen's composure might well be simple recklessness, but she is seized by a need to keep up with the husband she loves. The sepia-toned tale runs straight and true along the course of the Colorado, Michaels's well-integrated research and descriptions of the rushing water and rocky cliffs giving it a simple, convincing period tone. Though the rapids may come to seem monotonous, the love story at the heart of this honest historical adventure tale rings true. (June) Forecast: The only connection between this book and Michaels's well-received memoir, Split, about growing up a child of the counterculture, is the author's clean, well-crafted prose. Fans of the latter may be puzzled, and chances are this quiet first novel won't attract the attention of the earlier memoir. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
A near-miss of a first novel about the seductions of ambition and fame, in the fact-based story of a honeymooning couple who set off in 1928 to run the rapids of the Grand Canyon. The promise of fame and riches exemplified by Charles Lindberghs flight, Hollywoods star-making, and the frenzy on Wall Street seduced many in the late 1920sincluding the two protagonists here, whose determination to make their names and fortunes was typical of the period. This gives the story of Bessie and Glen Hyde an intriguing philosophical and historical underpinning, for Bessie wants to be the first woman to run that notorious part of the Colorado River as it races between narrow banks and over dangerous rapids through the Grand Canyon; and Glen, an Idaho apple farmer, wants to enlarge his horizons by defeating the river and then joining the vaudeville circuit to describe how he did it. As the two set off in their homemade scow, West Virginiaborn Bessie recalls a past that includes a brief marriage, an abortion, a year studying art in San Francisco, and then her meeting with Glen. Initially, they easily overcome the rapids they run and both are elated, but when Glen falls overboard and nearly drowns during one especially dangerous passage, Bessie becomes increasingly fearful. Then, when the two fail to meet at a certain rendezvous, Glens father is alarmed and starts tracking them. The account of his search alternates with the couples progress through the Canyon, a trek thats briefly relieved by a restorative stay at the Canyon Hotel. Bessie is tempted to give up, but, although by now horribly afraid, agrees to continue, since the destination seems so near. But the river, alternately menacing and entrancing (and the best-realized presence in the book, the people seeming mere plot vehicles) has its own plans. A grand ambition that thins into the disappointing.
Booklist Review
Michaels's first novel is certainly well titled, for it is both grand in its themes and ambitious in its intent. Weaving together the sparse threads of a historical event into fiction is not new, but the deftness with which Michaels crafts her narrative is rare. Working with what facts there are to be found, Michaels tells the story of the first husband-and-wife team to attempt to raft down the Grand Canyon in 1928. In doing so, she creates a story that is at once a literary travelogue, an Indiana Jones adventure, a portrait of a marriage, and a sketch of a man. The result is a treasure. There is never a false note in this novel, never an inflated sentence, only voices perfectly pitched to character, descriptions resolutely true to place, and a sublime sense of pacing. Michaels's first novel gives rise to great anticipation for her second. --Neal Wyatt
Library Journal Review
Had newlyweds Glen and Bessie Hyde run the length of the Colorado River in 1928, they would have been only the tenth party to do so, and Bessie would have been the first woman to brave the tract's treacherous rapids. Like their hero, Charles Lindbergh, the Hydes hoped to break records and become famous. But six weeks into their journey, they disappeared. In this first novel, Michaels deftly fleshes out the few facts of the Hydes' trip and weaves their story with that of Glen's father, who desperately searches for the lost couple. Part tender romance, part compelling mystery, Grand Ambition is a riveting account of the strength, love, ambition, and fear of two people as they test their own limits and attempt to make a lasting mark on the world. Michaels, an award-wining poet and author of the memoir Split: A Counterculture Childhood, convincingly evokes both the terrifying geography of the Colorado River and the complicated terrain of the human heart. Highly recommended. Karen Anderson, Quarles & Brady/Streich Lang, Phoenix, AZ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
