"For many years now, the poet, playwright, and memoirist Irene O'Garden has been a hero to me. I think of her as a walking, writing, beam of light. It is my hope that ...numberless others will come to know her gifts and, most of all, her captivating talent for wonder and marvel."
― Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and Big Magic
“Family is landscape,” writes Irene O’Garden in her breathtaking memoir, Risking the Rapids. She gives us a bold dose of both as she embarks on a remote river trip to help make sense of a family wild and dangerous. In her brave eloquence, O’Garden adds a thoroughly welcome voice to the rich vein of American literature on the singular healing powers of wilderness."
― Florence Williams, Author of The Nature Fix, LA Times Book Prize winner and editor at Outside Magazine
"It is a tricky business, navigating the river of forgiveness while honoring the injured self. In that wilderness the psyche must surrender to each boulder life smashes it against, and then stand in awe as we experience the changes wrought within our very DNA that are the gifts of facing down our demons; the gifts of looking our inner and outer truths square in the eye. O’Garden does this better than anyone I know and then puts it into words that have the cadence of angels." -Linda Ford Blaikie, C.S.W.Psychotherapist, Author of Godless Grace
"Irene O’Garden’s memoir is riveting, fiercely honest, and graced with poetic insight. An imaginative child plagued by insecurities, O'Garden vied with six siblings for her parents’ approval and lived beneath the Damocles sword of Catholic doctrine. Her chronicle of growing up in what seemed then a normal Mid-western family in the 1950s and 60s asks, "Who were we, really?" in a far-ranging, haunting journey of discovery."
―Victoria Riskin, Former President,Writers Guild of America, West , Author of Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir
Risking the Rapids is a sensitive depiction of a family’s attempt to heal. In the tradition of classic memoirs like The Glass Castle that highlight the co- existence of tortured love and unresolved misery, Irene O’Garden has captured the essence of family connections. With suspense and uncertainty about how complicated relationships unfold, this story intrigues and inspires us. I highly recommend this book to all of us who struggle with the legacies of abuse and the hopefulness to heal.
Sonya Rhodes, Ph.D
Author and family therapist
"Irene O’Garden’s Risking the Rapids is, simply put, a literary triumph. Her roiling journey through the whitewater of big family turbulence is alternately a companionable sisterly punch in the shoulder and a vicious left hook to the jaw. And as is true for all superb writing, it is the “left hook” that unexpectedly provides the narrator’s stunning―even transcendent―passage into calm waters and healing. Put aside whatever has gained your attention right now and read this book. O’Garden is truly a wonderful guide. " - Steven Lewis, Loving Violet
"Risking the Rapids artfully peels back the layers of family to reveal both the darkness and the diamond. O'Garden lyrically shares the challenging circumstances of her midwest, Catholic childhood as a thread woven through a story of present-day danger during what is supposed to be a simple outing. The kaleidoscope effect of past and present, reflection and struggle bring the reader along on a powerful healing journey to bring what is hidden into the light." - Heather Ash, author of bestselling "Warrior Goddess Training."
“RISKING THE RAPIDS is a deep and powerful memoir. Irene O’Garden sifts through her family’s shared pain (and shared joy!) with elegance and care ― searching for nothing less than ultimate understanding and supreme forgiveness.”
-Martha Beck, author of Finding Your Own North Star
"I haven’t experienced this kind of reverberating tension and utter fascination with a family since Jeannette Walls’s memoir, The Glass Castle. Irene O’Garden’s long career of treasured work hits its highest note yet with her memoir. How she survived her upbringing in a big, dysfunctional Catholic family -- and the harrowing wilderness trip through whitewaters she took as an adult with her family ― is riveting and ultimately healing.
~ Debbie Phillips, author “Women on Fire: 20 Inspiring Women Share Their Life Secrets (and Save You Years of Struggle!
Irene O'Garden is, quite frankly, the most amazing writer I know. She's a poet - just read her words aloud. She's a story-teller - consider the arc of the tale she tells here. She's a dramatist - we're in that boat with her, risking the rapids, and hopefully rescuing our past self as she so magnificently succeeds in doing."
--John Leonard Pielmeier, author of Hook's Tale, Agnes of God
"Irene O’Garden’s Risking the Rapids is both a meditation and a thrill ride in which a sibling’s death prompts an unlikely family rafting journey through Montana's wilderness. The beauty, moods, and menace of the swollen Flathead River seem an allegory of family life and, like sunlight glinting off water, her brutally honest reckoning is told in sparkling, luminous prose that gives memoir itself a fresh new shape.” ―Edward McCann, Founder/Editor, Read650.com
“If I were you I would set aside a goodly few hours as you are about to plunge into the lives of a family that has chosen you as their new member . You are about to dive into midst of the most colorful familial grouping you have ever experienced here they are on horseback immersed in rivers on tops of mountains quarreling forgiving sleeping camping .there is the celeb Dad the strong holding it altogether mother guiding misguiding consoling joyously feasting at holiday time and weeping too when tragedy befalls .this is a lively enthralling book that embraces our being and never let's go .Be good to yourself and embrace Irene O'Garden and Risking the Rapids.”
―Malachy McCourt, author of Ireland and A Monk Swimming
