By Audrey Ingram
Alcove Press, 2023
Paper: $18.99
Genre: Fiction
Reviewed by Lisa Harrison
A rising star in a prestigious Washington, D.C., law firm confronts a personal tragedy plus familial and professional challenges that lead her to question her priorities, beliefs, and long-held animosity towards her hometown of Fairhope, Alabama, in The River Runs South, an entrancing and illuminating debut novel from Audrey Ingram.
Camille Taylor’s seemingly perfect life as wife, mother, and law partner is upended when her husband dies unexpectedly of a heart attack. Camille has always prided herself on her ability to multitask, juggling her family and work responsibilities by living a highly scheduled life neatly organized into a spreadsheet containing all her tasks and appointments. She believes herself to be successfully continuing her routine-bound life after the tragedy, with the occasional telling miss of a “to do” item such as eating. But when her work noticeably suffers, her firm forces her into a sabbatical. She reluctantly accepts her parents’ offer for herself and her year-old daughter, Willa, to stay with them at her old family home in Fairhope. There she will be forced to confront her strained relationship with her family and home-town friends, her dismissal of her state as a “box” into which she never “fit,” and the ties that nevertheless bind her to a landscape she loves.
Once ensconced in her childhood home, Camille has barely begun the process of reconnecting with the spirited daughter she has been raising by rote and the parents with whom she has been distant when a chance meeting with a charismatic environmentalist leads her to discover that her landscape architect father is the subject of a lawsuit. Further complications arise in the form of competing love interests and the fact that her father’s legal case is caught between the interests of her potential beaus: Griffin Wood, her father’s lawyer, and Mack Phillips, the environmentalist bringing the lawsuit.
The backdrop for this engaging, organically developing plot is the waterways and attractions of Alabama’s Lower Fish River Basin and its communities. As Camille introduces her daughter to the favorite haunts of her own childhood, the story becomes a love note to Alabama’s diverse ecosystem and to the eateries, farms, gardens, and locally owned shops that dot the landscape. Among the real-life places visited in the novel are Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Bellingrath Gardens in Theodore, Point Clear’s Grand Hotel, the Elberta Goat Farm, Lambert’s Cafe in Foley, the peach vendors in Clanton, and Priester’s Pecans in Ft. Deposit.
As readers accompany Camille on her literal and metaphorical journeys, they are introduced to one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world and led to understand the importance of protecting it. Mack’s views on the necessity of preserving the waterways of South Alabama reflect those of Alabama environmentalist Ben Raines, cited by Ingram as an influence in her acknowledgments. Personal lessons are not neglected: Camille questions her previous meticulously organized and scheduled life and the priorities that lead her to prioritize career over relationships, inviting readers to ponder their own life choices.
The River Runs South satisfies on many levels: as a moving story of loss, reckoning, self-discovery, and redemption; as a travelog through the byways of south Alabama; and as an eye-opening expose of the destruction being wrought on the area’s fragile and irreplaceable ecosystem. Readers who enjoy romance, stories with a strong sense of place, and eco-fiction will all enjoy this rewarding debut.
Audrey Ingram is a native of Alabama and a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center. She practiced law in Washington, D.C., for fifteen years. When not writing, she can be found digging in her garden or hiking the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Lisa Harrison is an avid reader who spent fifteen years in the book publishing industry. When not curled up with a cup of tea, a book, and a rescued cat or two (or more), she enjoys all varieties of needlecrafts.
