First I must tell you that RIVEN ROCK is a very, very good
book. It is, perhaps, T. C. Boyle's best novel yet.

And second, I must tell you that it is almost impossible to
describe. As this is a review, I'm going to try to give you some
sense of what it is about, but if I had my druthers I would simply
say --- "just read it" --- and type the words "The End."

At base, RIVEN ROCK is a novel about love and sex and the way they
work, or sometimes don't --- and about what can happen when they do
work, or sometimes don't.

It is the most unusual love story you will ever read, and it is all
the more fascinating because it involves real people whose lives
Boyle has fictionalized. RIVEN ROCK is not just a story --- it is
an entire world captured between the covers of a book.

Stanley McCormick was the youngest son of Cyrus McCormick, the
inventor of the mechanical reaper and scion of Chicago society.
Katherine Dexter was a Boston socialite, the first woman to
graduate from MIT with a degree in the sciences and an early leader
in the women's suffrage movement.

They met, fell in love and married in 1904. It was the match of the
century. But for reasons that you will have to read the book to
discover, their marriage was never consummated.

Shortly after the wedding, brilliant buy high-strung Stanley
suffered a nervous breakdown and was diagnosed as both a
schizophrenic and a sex maniac. He was sent to Riven Rock, his
family's estate near Santa Barbara, California. He remained locked
in that house with a group of male caretakers for more than twenty
years.

Katherine --- still a virgin --- continued her work with the
suffrage movement for which she became quite famous. But she never
stopped hoping that Stanley would be cured and that they would
again be together. Each year she travelled to California hoping
that Stanley's health had improved.

Boyle has woven three separate stories into RIVEN ROCK. Along with
Stanley and Katherine's stories, he gives us the tales of Stanley's
caretakers. The most notable of these is Eddie O'Kane.

But I do RIVEN ROCK an injustice with this paltry outline of a book
that overflows with rich characters and a plot with more twists and
turns than a mountain trail. It is written in phrases and sentences
that will dazzle you with their brilliance.

Boyle has an appreciation for the absurdity of life. He is a master
of all he creates, and RIVEN ROCK is the best of his
creations.

Read it.

The End.