Edward and Lawrence are brothers born six years apart. Edward is the younger, smarter, and more successful brother who married the very beautiful Elizabeth and together, they have a smart son. The Edward and his family live in a huge house in a great neighborhood. They have the perfect life thanks to Edward's successful career as an ophthalmologist. Lawrence, on the other hand, was always the tough trouble maker; always mysterious, violent, and angry. While the entire story is told from the perspective of Edward, his narrative changes a third of the way through. He talks about his older brother until Lawrence comes to visit. Dressed in rags and looking like a homeless man, Lawrence's arrival after ten years of silence is so completely unexpected and out of the blue Edward doesn't recognize him. The brothers have been estranged to the point of strangling the relationship. This short reunion rattles loose memories for Edward. He spends the rest of the book talking to Lawrence, going back in time to relive their tumultuous childhood. The reader is left wondering, who is the traitor, who has the bigger sense of guilt? ( )

BLUE RIVER was Ethan Canin's first novel, published 25 years ago. Its theme is a familiar one that he covered in his first collection, EMPEROR OF THE AIR, and coninued to examine in his later books: brothers, and the conflicts that can drive them apart. There is much here too about broken families and the influence of an absent father, as well as elements of mental illnesses like schizophrenia and depression. I've read probably half a dozen of Canin's books now and enjoyed all of them. If you are a Canin fan, then you will like this one. Highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER ( )

This is the story of the relationship between two brothers.

In his younger days, Edward admired his brother, Lawrence, who was six years older thatn he.

Years pass and the adventurous Lawrence leaves home. He hasn't been seed by Edward for fifteen years when he arrives at Edward's home, unannounced and in need of food and clothing.

Edward has become a wealthy eye surgeon in California while Lawrence is an out of work card dealer from Nevada. It seems that the visit might be because Lawrence wants to re-establish a relationship with his brother.

Lawrence wins over Edward's five-year-old son, Jonathan. He acts insanely with Jonathan, flopping on the floor and making monkey noises when the family visits the zoo. Jonathan may enjoy this but Edward is skeptical.

Then, in a revealing moment, Lawrence asks Edward if he can stay a bit longer. Callously, Edward refuses. He gives his brother some money and drives him to the bus station.

The story goes on and Edward narrates about the earlier days with Lawrence. Nothing really happens in this novel. Edward is a passive, sermonizing character while Lawrence is a Machiavellian, out for whatever thrill he can get.

The book has had mixed reviews and I continued to read, with hopes that the story would improve. It didn't.

I found the characters cardboard, the plot uninteresting and the novel without merit. ( )

Blue River is the story of two estranged brothers, semi-derelict Lawrence and his successful younger brother Edward. When Lawrence shows up bedraggled on Edward’s doorstep, the uncomfortable reunion inspires Edward’s lengthy reminiscence on their shared history and reasons for the long estrangement.

Ethan Canin is an excellent writer. But his debut novel suffers, as so many first novels do, from trying too hard to tell a story without getting close enough to the story to do it justice. He is like a baker trying to make bread by smoothing and tapping and describing the dough instead of really getting in there to knead, pound, and stretch it.

Several devices keep Canin – and his readers – distanced from the story. First . . .

Full review posted on Rose City Reader. ( )

There is no doubt that Ethan Canin is capable of writing stories that wrench the heart and are filled with moments of soft pain. Blue River, his first novel, has moments of great beauty that suffer from his incomplete mastery of the form of the novel. My advice is to skip the flimsy backstory that unfortunately starts this novel, and begin on pg 72: "There was no blue anywhere in our bend of the river." The story of Edward and his older brother Lawrence is the heart of this novel which should have been permitted to be a novella. Be sure to skip the overwritten passages about the buttoning of a shirt or the sermons of Mr. Howland to the Community Club. Too often, Canin seemed seduced by the beauty of his own own words and lingered there too long, till the words became pruned and meaningless in the scheme of the real story of failings, guilt, and betrayal. When the reader reaches this part of the story, they will finally be rewarded. All-in-all, Canin certainly deserved a second chance at mastering the novel after this worthy attempt. ( )