White River is a raw cut portion of story telling that resurrects a past thought forever gone. The cleanest effect of McEwen’s skill is how he disappears as his specific breed of ancestors resurrects in tongue to tell their story with truth and power. These cowboys and Indians and aunts and uncles who populate White River revive a world where such men and women existed. The author's gift for conjuring this recent past in its authentic context, with lean, effortless poetry, is magical.—David Rooks