William Least Heat-Moon
Paperback | Pages: 502 pages Rating: 3.9 | 1765 Users | 188 Reviews
Describe Appertaining To Books River-Horse (The Travel Trilogy #3)
| Title | : | River-Horse (The Travel Trilogy #3) |
| Author | : | William Least Heat-Moon |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 502 pages |
| Published | : | April 1st 2001 by Penguin Books (first published January 1st 1999) |
| Categories | : | Travel. Nonfiction. Autobiography. Memoir. Environment. Nature. History |
Relation As Books River-Horse (The Travel Trilogy #3)
On the Road AgainThere's no shortage of 20th-century literature about traveling across America in a car. Even William Least Heat-Moon, author of River Horse, wrote a nonfiction work about his search in a beat-up Ford for himself and America (Blue Highways).
But not since the 19th-century adventures of Mark Twain, as told in Life on the Mississippi, have readers had the chance to vicariously take a journey across America by water rather than by road. River Horse, a voyage across America's waterways, is a return to a bygone literary tradition. Following in the footsteps of America's greatest explorers, from Henry Hudson to Lewis and Clark, Heat-Moon traveled around the waterways of America in a 22-foot cruiser boat called Nikawa (Osage for "river horse").
Heat-Moon covers 5,000-plus miles in four months, departing from Astoria, New York, and completing his journey in Astoria, Oregon. River Horse completes Heat-Moon's trilogy of explorations of America and the American people, which he began with Blue Highways and Prairyerth.
Be Specific About Books Supposing River-Horse (The Travel Trilogy #3)
| Original Title: | River-Horse: Across America by Boat |
| ISBN: | 0140298606 (ISBN13: 9780140298604) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | The Travel Trilogy #3 |
| Literary Awards: | Society of Midland Authors Award for Adult Nonfiction (2000) |
Rating Appertaining To Books River-Horse (The Travel Trilogy #3)
Ratings: 3.9 From 1765 Users | 188 ReviewsCrit Appertaining To Books River-Horse (The Travel Trilogy #3)
There is no hiding in writing. You can run the River Of No Return in central Idaho, you can float the Xingu in central Brazil, raft the Grand Canyon of the wild Colorado, drive the Pacific Coast Highway, travel to faraway lands and cultures, or ride the rails and watch for fires in desolate, lookout towers in the middle of nowhere you can ride and ride and ride, and run and run and run, but if you choose to write about your journey, you cannot hide who you are. William Least Heat-Moon, authorA winning book by one the masters of travel writing, an audacious journey that no one had ever completed, and a primer on how to get along with your traveling companions. After I finished his first book on travel, Blue Highways, I bought a second copy so that I could give one away, as I do, and keep one to reread. Thats high praise from me. And this book will likely take the same course. Read it because you like rivers and the boats that travel them, read it because you like travel in the
502 pages of pure, unbounded joy, this is as delightful, delicious, delectable a read as you'll find, rather like savouring the most scrumptious cherry pie or carrot cake and being able to continue eating and enjoying without ever being sated. And if the words I just used and the simile seem an over-the-top description then that's the style that Heat-Moon uses to waft his reader alongside him as he cruises from coast to coast. His style may be flowery but it's rooted in a love of language; his
Oh man! I've been working on this book for a while. Once I'm finished with it I'm sure I'll give it four stars. I mean, I do like it. But like Blue Highways, Heat-Moon doesn't miss a detail or a bit of trivia and he doesn't miss an opportunity to share those things with you. The journey here is a SLOW one, it seems, because he offers so much so often. Bogs you down such that sometimes you just want to put your fingers in your ears and say, "Just open up the throttles and shut up for a minute,
I have been entranced by travel literature since the early '70s, when I read On the Road. I've read two of Heat-Moon's other books, PrairyErth and Blue Highways. So far, this is the best.
This book is a slog, let's just get that out of the way right now! At about 500 pages it's a hefty tome but it feels even longer thanks to Heat-Moon's plodding plotting and his style of overwriting. I really enjoyed Blue Highways when I read it years ago and the idea of his travelling the USA via rivers intrigued me and I'm glad I read the book but...The author travels the entire journey with a man we know only as Pilotis, this gets annoying fast and we never learn a thing about the man he
This is a bad-ass book in terms of being the work of an independent thinker a nature-loving rebel, and a critic of modernism. That is what I like about it. But he went overboard- reduced his friends' credit into one, aggregate, seemingly incompetent character. I am still flabbergasted by that. Whether or not the friendship ended somewhat sourly, Heat-Moon should have told the truth, the outright colorful (though not necessarily friction-free) details of his friends' amateur boating efforts. I
0 comments:
Post a Comment