Pam Houston, Selway

Rapid water and rapid heartbeats. “Selway,” by Pam Houston, is a primer on escalating action one excruciating drop at a time. The young narrator of the story, who is never named, and her boyfriend, Jack, take on one of the wildest rivers in North America, a river open only a few weeks each year due to the harsh climate. Running this wild river is so popular with adventure rafters, they have to enter a lottery to get a permit. Some people try their whole lives and never get the permit.

Ramona, the park ranger, is reluctant to hand Jack his permit:

“There was an accident today,” Ramona said. “In Ladle.”

“Anybody hurt?” Jack asked.

“It’s not official.”

“Killed?”

“The water’s rising,” Ramona said, and turned back to her desk.

Danger warnings are everywhere as the story unfolds. Night is coming on. The water keeps rising until it’s off-the-charts high. When rivers are high, they’re “dark and impatient and turbulent, like a volcano or a teenage boy.”  Something is going to happen. Something bad.

With the invincibility of youth, the young couple ignore the warnings, navigating the spillways, the holes, the rushing water, each plunge into white water more challenging than the last. Along the way, they also navigate their relationship. The narrator wonders if they have a future together, or if running rivers, the adrenalin of risking their lives, is the only thing that holds them together. She realizes as the story unfolds that the danger is not the attraction at all. “I thought I was there because I loved danger, but sitting on the rock I knew I was there because I loved Jack.” Her deep desire, when she’s finally honest with herself, is that Jack will see her courage, her willingness to let him live his life, and reward her with a marriage proposal.

A master storyteller, Pam Houston sets a scene with a keen eye for detail. Her sentences are spare yet completely realized. By the end of the story, I was spent. I felt like I had stared death in the face and been forced to take stock of it all along with these two characters.

“Selway,” by Pam Houston, was first published in Cowboys Are My Weakness. The collection has been translated into nine languages, and won the 1993 Western States Book Award. It was named a New York Times Notable Book in 1992. It stands the test of time.