Review: Swift River by Essie Chambers

A poignant novel about the subtleties of Northern interpersonal racism

I love Diamond Newberry, the endearing biracial protagonist that anchors the beautiful landscape of debut novelist Essie Chambers’s Swift River, but not more than I love the cover, which is so soft and evocative, I struggled to put the galley away.

Swift River is the name of the New England mill town where Diamond is the only Black person. Once upon a time, there were two: Her father, who has disappeared and foul play is probably at work, and herself. Now just she and her white mother remain, and they have to manage being poor on top of being subject to gossip and speculation about her Black father’s potential death.

Diamond’s voice is the most charming aspect of this story that combines elements of mystery, family conflict, social difference and humor, to lovely effect. It helps, too, that the story is mostly set in the 1980s, when I was younger, so reading about a girl who’s got a little extra meat on her bones learning to drive and coming of age against the backdrop of the disappearance of her father held a lot of resonance for me.

The voices and letters in the novel — some between Diamond and her distant auntie Lena, others are older — help with Swift River’s movement. Diamond and her mother don’t have any money, so they hitchhike even when it’s unsafe, especially when Diamond’s dad goes missing. That he is profiled isn’t stated but shown in the disrespectful sneers of some of the cops.

We also get to see, in stark and subtle ways how desperate Diamond is to fit in, to be living a story that not everyone knows or thinks they know; there are rumors that her father has been spotted around town, and these are the rumors that her mother’s hope clings to.

The heartbeat of Swift River, to me, is the sense that in order for Diamond to be free, she needs to get out — of the town, of the stories on a loop about her parents’ past, out of her own way. This is the essence for me of what makes a novel stick, what keeps us immersed in a story: Whether the heroine can save themselves when no one is coming to save them. Most of the characters around her are trying for escape, too, and acceptance, but what makes the novel sing and vibrate is the understanding we have with Diamond, and of her: She’s the one with the best chances, even if those chances are slim.