REVIEWS FOR PANIC RIVER

“Elliott Foster became the voice of Minnesota cabin land with Whispering Pines. Now he crosses the river into rural Wisconsin with his darkly droll novel, Panic River. Foster writes characters that are so real and lovably imperfect that you want to shove anyone who bullies them down the staircase of character Corey Fischer’s mother’s home—straight into the outhouse in her basement. The spark has been dwindling between Corey and his husband Nick, who has not been telling the truth. But in turning the pages I discovered that Corey and his family have more secrets of their own than there are deer in Barron County. And so begins the panic-filled hunt for the real meaning of Corey’s inheritance.” 

Catherine Dehdashti, author of the novel Roseheart,

"Elliott Foster has dared to be honest in his newest work 'Panic River.'  Set in familiar Upper Mississippi River locales, his novel takes us to the secret interiors of familiar faces and their outdoor lives.  His exploration of marriage, family, sexuality and gender identity is courageous, insightful, and compassionate, and his story has cliff-hanger qualities that make it a page turner."

Emilio Degrazia, Minnesota Book Award-winning author & poet

"Foster’s hero is a man in pain, and the way forward hurts even more. But walls come down, hearts open, and there is such pleasure in sharing the journey."

Sandra Scofield, National Book Award finalist and American Book Award winning author of
 Beyond Deserving and Swim: Stories of the Sixties

"Panic River is a marvel: equal parts salient, searing portrait of Middle America and taut, orchestrated page-turner full of family secrets that don't stay buried for long. Foster offers up an exquisitely-crafted panoply that grapples with American angst, toxic masculinity, identity, and the expectations we face every day of our lives, all handled with tenderness and deft skill. Yes, this is a luminous novel; I'll happily follow Foster wherever he goes next."

Robert James Russell, author of Mesilla and Sea of Trees 

"Elliott Foster has written a tremendous novel, at once a testimony to courage and friendship and family bonds, PANIC RIVER is also wickedly intense and psychologically riveting. It is, in other words, the sort of novel that touches on every reading pleasure."

Peter Geye, author of WINTERING

From the San Francisco Book Review
(4 out of 5 stars):
Corey Fischer is a struggling artist who once had a dream to become a great artist. After meeting his spouse, Nick, Corey is grateful for meeting someone who treats him so well and who supports his creative endeavors. Nick does not seem to mind supporting both of them. Corey's parents, on the other hand, are not happy that Corey is gay, especially his father. But things aren't all puppies and roses in Corey and Nick's relationship. Nick has cheated on Corey before, and when Nick goes away on a business trip for the bank he works at, Corey is convinced that he is there with a married co-worker named Evan. Corey decides to take his life at that point but is unsuccessful.

I found this book to have an interesting plot that started out well; however, as the story moved on, I started to not like the main character very much. He was just so needy throughout the book that I wanted to roll my eyes and tell him to just "man-up," which is exactly what Corey's father always told him to do because he acted like such a wimp in any circumstance. I could almost feel Corey's anxiety through the pages of the book every time he was thrown into a different situation. He had a hard time adapting to anything and had
very low self-esteem on top of that. Throughout the book, it was said several times that Nick was a jerk. And although his cheating was unacceptable and he stepped over the line several times while talking to
people, including Corey's mom, I never got the vibe that he was necessarily a jerk. I would say he was just more forthcoming and blunt with his communications.

The craziest part of the book happens near the end though, and without spoiling it for other readers, all I have to say is, "What happened next?" Corey goes a bit off the deep end, but the book closes with a few strings left untied and I'd love to know what happens next for everyone in the book.

Overall, this book was a fascinating read about love, tough love, and all of the complicated relationships that happen when a person decides to be him or herself. Well-written with all types of little life lessons thrown in, this book was engaging and entertaining. A book well worth reading, geared towards young adults to adults.
Reviewed by Kristi Elizabeth

From the Midwest Book Review:

Everything is connected, in life. When human relationships fall apart, these connections may become frayed, but often they are not entirely gone.

Corey Fischer, a gay man on the cusp of his 40s, stands to lose all connections in his life, from his family, which has disowned him because of his sexuality, to his chosen husband Nick, who has betrayed his trust. His artistic pursuits do not hold the promise they once did, either, and this is one of the reasons Nick, who has been largely supporting them, has grown distant and disappointed.

In many ways, Panic River is the quintessential story of middle-age revelations and angst; but it also presents an edgy exploration of the impact of an inheritance which changes everything and exposes the darker underside of a much-changed relationship.

Middle age is a gray area where youthful perceptions and enthusiasm are traded for rude awakenings, powerful realizations about dreams and realities, and both evolving and disintegrating bonds between families, lovers, and life itself.

Corey perfectly reflects this process as he struggles with family secrets and a huge challenge to everything he's built and believed in, including himself. This draws readers to the edge of the roots of growth and realization as patterns of old arguments from his childhood come to permeate vastly changed connections as an adult.

A deer hunting trip and incident becomes the pivot point of this process. Readers will be riveted to a story that seems to move towards inevitable disaster, only to pull back and become a saga of transformative possibilities and a new life.

Like the river, Panic River ebbs and flows as truths are slowly and often reluctantly uncovered and Corey pulls apart the ties that bind until threads are left raw, hanging, and seemingly disrupted forever. One wonders what can be rebuilt from such disaster, but just as new truths emerge, so the phoenix of
possibility rises from the ashes of destruction.

Elliott Foster excels at creating a hard-hitting story that begins softly, with a life on the verge of big changes, and then moves into the protagonist's ability to accept illusion and, finally, reality. This forces him - and readers - to understand not only the pull and power of past influences, but their ability to craft and warp present-day reality.

Panic River is no cursory romp through challenging circumstances. Foster takes time to build exquisite descriptions that link events to Corey's own physical and psychic vulnerability, as in the emotional grab and challenge of a successful hunt: "He tried looking away, but couldn't help seeing Nick stab the jagged edge of a large knife into the deer's protruding rib cage. An audible burst of air gushed from the slit, the
final remnant of life held deep within the buck's chest. Corey gasped a moment later, sucking into his lungs the same air he imagined that the deer had just expelled. And then he held it inside, willing himself not to exhale for as long as he could muster. He finally released one steady stream of exasperation - the air, the tension, the regret. He hadn't been the one to pull the trigger but felt just as bad as if he had."

Under Foster's hand, these ties that bind re-form decades later, juxtaposing angst and loss with new promise.

Everything is connected, in life.

Novel readers who choose Panic River for its theme of a middle-aged gay man facing his demons and much-changed circumstances will uncover the roots of these connections and will learn how they evolve. They will find Panic River a powerfully evocative, thought-provoking consideration of how life moves on, how freedoms evaporate and re-form, and how one man makes difficult choices that bring him full circle in an unexpected way.

PROLOGUE

“Faceless” by C. Fischer

1983 Stockholm Art Fair, Third Prize

The sandy-haired boy stood inside the crown of a rugged oak, his fingernail dug deep into the crevasses of its bark. His feet perched on tiptoes atop a sturdy branch while one arm seized the trunk. It was a long way to the ground. He appeared to be looking out across the wide river valley, but only the back of his head was visible. His facial expressions were hidden from view.

            The abstract painting filled the canvas with muted colors—grays and beige, with a sliver of crimson on the open palm of the boy’s free hand and a few drops of the same color suspended toward the Earth, below. The artwork contained just enough detail to grasp that the boy had mounted a middling hardwood burrowing its tentacled roots into the thinly cloaked ground of an island. Brown river water flooded its base and birds of prey circled in the sky. Leafless branches radiated from the trunk—shielding the boy from above, supporting him from below, and beckoning him father out from the trunk.

            In the distance a church steeple, slender and white, towered above a village resting along the riverbank. Still, patrons could not see the boy’s face. From this distance, the town was blurred in tones of sable and soot, except for that lone, ivory tower. From his post in the treetops, the steeple must have
looked smaller than it did up close. From here, it wasn’t clear—was the boy searching for something on the horizon, or taking delight in having climbed to the top of the world?