The River

Three men wearing suits visit Brian, the novel’s protagonist, while he’s home alone. One of the men, Derek, asks whether Brian’s mother and father are at home, and Brian replies that his father does not live there because his parents recently divorced. Derek confirms that Brian is the one they are looking for by asking if he “survived alone in the Canadian woods for two months” (2). Brian wonders if the men are from the press, reflecting on the constant publicity surrounding him after his return from the woods. Although he was excited by the attention at first, he was glad to finally be left alone and return to normalcy with his new girlfriend, Deborah McKenzie. Derek says he is a psychologist from a government survival school, where he and the other men prepare people, such as pilots and soldiers, to survive if they become stranded. They share the purpose of their visit with Brian: They want him to “do it again” (3). 

At first, Brian thinks Derek must be joking. Brian feels he only made it out safely because of luck, but Derek disagrees. Derek explains that he and the other men teach others how to survive and practice going out and testing their skills, but it’s not real, “where everything is on the line” (6).