Catherine Raynes: The River is Waiting and The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits

The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb  

Corby Ledbetter is struggling. New fatherhood, the loss of his job, and a growing secret addiction have thrown his marriage to his beloved Emily into a tailspin. And that's before he causes the tragedy that tears the family apart.  

Sentenced to prison, Corby struggles to survive life on the inside, where he bears witness to frightful acts of brutality but also experiences small acts of kindness and elemental kinship with a prison librarian who sees his light and some of his fellow offenders, including a tender hearted cellmate and a troubled teen desperate for a role model. Buoyed by them and by his mother's enduring faith in him, Corby begins to transcend the boundaries of his confinement, sustained by his hope that mercy and reconciliation might still be possible. Can his crimes ever be forgiven by those he loves? 

  

The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner  

Fame comes at a price… 

The Griffin Sisters had the world at their feet, catapulted to stardom in the early 00’s before they become one of rock music’s greatest mysteries: 

Zoe, effortlessly gorgeous, who loved the fans and the fame, dancing under the lights while her sister’s voice rang out across stadiums. 

Cassie, never comfortable with the crowds or the attention, but with the voice of a generation, rich, haunting, touched with heartbreak. 

It’s two decades since The Griffin Sisters broke up. Zoe’s a wife and mother, living in suburbia, occasionally recognised by a nostalgic fan. No one knows where Cassie is. The sisters haven’t spoken in years. 

Now, despite her mum’s warnings, Zoe’s teenage daughter, Cherry, is determined to break into the music business and to discover the truth about what happened to the band all those years ago. 

But as secrets emerge, Cassie and Zoe must face the consequences of their choices: the ones they made and the ones the music industry made for them. Can they forgive each other – and themselves? And will the Griffin Sisters ever make music again? 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks AB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Nineteen to twelve on News Talks. He'd b if you've
surprised yourself this weekend, A long weekend, an extra day's reading,
You've got through your book faster than expected. No stress.
Katherine Raine's our book reviewer, is here with two read
recommendations for this weekend. Hey Catherine, Morning Jack. Let's kick
things off This Martataku with the River is waiting by

(00:34):
Wally Lamb.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
So this is set in the spring of twenty seventeen
and Corey Labette is the father of twins and he's
recently lost his job and he's responsible for the toddlers
while his wife, Emily is at work and the marriage
to Emily's probably strained, and the two young two year
old twins that they have, Neco and Mazie, and this
whole acting as a house husband and child winder since

(00:57):
he lost his job has been this really significant blow
to his ego. And along with this, he has this
growing secret addiction to prescription anxiety and drugs and alcohol
just to kind of get him through the day. And
then there's horrific and heartbreaking tragedy occurs and it rips
everyone's world apart, and Corby's responsible for that loss, and
he's ends up being sentenced to prison. And in this story,

(01:20):
you never really get to hear Emily's point of view.
It's all told from Corby's and it's a book about
Corby and his story, and he's left to navigate the
wreckage and the guilt and the shame of what's happened,
and the prison system and life behind bars and the
bullying that takes place, and the treatment and mental health
issues and those flows and Corby barely survives on the inside,

(01:42):
but he also experiences some small acts of kindness and grace,
and he forms some good relationships with his liberian and
a sal mad and a young man who wants a
role model, and you kind of draw strength from those.
And Wally Lamb, the author has this incredible ability to
create characters that stay with you a long time after
you've finished the story. And he has the ability to
show all the people that are flawed and all of

(02:04):
their layered the characters, the good, bad, and the complex,
and this brilliant storytelling and The River Waiting is beautiful
and a sad story about how life can turn in
an absolute instance.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Right, Okay, sounds really interesting. So The River Is Waiting
by Wally Lamb. You've also read The Griffin Sister's Greatest
Hits by Jennifer Wyner.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
So this captures the early two thousands pop and rock
scene really well. The headlines the body shaming, the fame
that's both really intoxicating and incredibly destructive. And the story
is told across two timelines. So in the past you
meet Zoe, who's very charming and determined to determine and
she's just got enough talent to join the high school

(02:47):
band and dreaming of the spotlight and stardom. And his
sister Cassie, on the other hand, would prefer to be
out of the spotlight. Her anxiety often gets the better
of her, but she has this musical talent that demands attention,
and Zoe kind of manipulates her in convincing her to
sing in front of this music industry action and they're discovered,

(03:07):
and then you get this rise and epic fall of
the Griffin Sisters over a year. And in the present
time line, which is about twenty years later, you meet Cherry,
who's Zoe's daughter, and she feels that something's always been
missing for a life, and she loves music, but she
faces this opposition from her mother, who just wants to
shut it down at every turn, just tells her that

(03:27):
it's not a great place to be. Doesn't want to
do that. And now that she's eighteen, she's determined to
enter an audition for a big musical Discovery reality show
and she needs a mental so she goes to find
her aunt, Cassie, And so you get all of this.
All of the women in the book have this real
determination but in different ways, and their actions have consequences
and the reality of those actions from a long time ago.

(03:49):
And it has some heavier themes like women and music,
that obsession, toxic obsession with beauty, body image, and how
those pressures have fractured their lives and the people around them,
and all three have to face up to the challenges
of their choices. Yeah, it's a really interesting told story
and it really does care that early two thousands pop
kind of culture that was going on in those headlines,

(04:10):
So you feel like you're part of that world.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Nice, Okay, great little options there for us, Thanks Catherine.
So the first book was The River Is Waiting by
Wally Lamb. That one is the Griffins Sisters' Greatest Hits
by Jennifer Winer. All of the details for those will
be on the News Talk's EDB website. It's called it
a twelve.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks EDB from nine am Saturday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.