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Title: River Horse: The Logbook of a Boat Across America by William Least Heat Moon, William Least Heat-Moon ISBN: 0140298606 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 03 April, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Rating: 2
Summary: Maddening! I Wonder What Could Have Been?
Comment: I was very disappointed in the unabridged audio version of this book. I love unabridged audio books, and really enjoyed Blue Highways. River Horse, however, does not compare favorably at all. The idea of crossing America by boat is a terrific one, but this journey, as compared to Blue Highways, seems unnaturally detached and disconnected, as if it were written as an exercise in library research rather than from a passion for the trip itself.
Among the annoying facets of this book is the author's insistence on calling his seven companions on the river "Pilotis," effectively making them anonymous. Part of the charm of travel writing is its ability to introduce us to unique characters encountered along the way, an effect dampened a good bit by denying them faces. Heat-Moon (William Trogdon) and his companions also continually take political pot shots throughout the book without really bothering to present the other side of things, although doing so might have strengthened his arguments a bit. In addition, the author and his companion "joke" back and forth by continually referencing and quoting obscure 18th and 19th century writers and works in long, flowery passages that eventually become maddening. The audio version of this book forces the audio narrator to voice (and interpret) these passages, only compounding the irritation of the listener.
River Horse has a lot of promise, but Trogdon steals much of it away by refusing, until near the end, to let us see the trip and its true purpose unfold through his emotionally damaged eyes. I find myself wondering what could have been.
Rating: 4
Summary: Riverhorse Sufers from High Expectations
Comment: River-Horse has the unenvious distinction of being preceded by two other Heat-Moon books which were outstandingly great reads. My favorite was PrairyErth and coming in second was Blue Highways. River-Horse lacks the depth of PrairyErth and the wonderfull stories told to the author as he rambled around thirty eight states for thirteen thousand miles in Blue Highways.More importantly, where are all the gems of philosophy of which his other two books were loaded? However I did find the book fascinating as he related so much about the water ways and the envirommental challenges that face them in the future. Moreover he informs the reader of how important whether is to navigation on these water ways from rainstorms to snow melt. The best feature of the book was how it raised my consciousness regarding the trade-offs that are made when man chooses development over simply leaving nature alone. In particular, how the Corp of Engineers has robbed the upper Missouri of much of its august beauty through the construction of so many hydro- electric dams.All in all a good read, but one that left me wanting regarding the keen detail and observation which was so prevalent in his other two giants which he so brilliantly penned.
Rating: 5
Summary: Courageous Cruise
Comment: William Least Heat-Moon is one of America's great travellers, that rare writer who possesses both a moral sense and a sense of humor. So when he set out across America by boat in a C-Dory named Nikawa, it wasn't too much to expect a tale full of eccentrics, humor, watery reflections and even anger. I wasn't disappointed: Heat-Moon has given readers a book that glows with his appreciation (and understanding) of the American spirit even as he champions neglected American waterways. But I found that despite its coast-to-coast direction, River-Horse is not a simple book. It challenges us to board Nikawa and take a journey that is not always lively or action-filled, to feel the motion of times past when river travel was the way by which everyone, including Lewis and Clark, really saw America first. In River-Horse, Heat-Moon captures the nature of the waters beneath the hull: sometimes fast, other times tranquil even tedious, but never out of rhythm with the natural world. I think his courage continues to give his work a strength of character rare in today's politically-correct atmosphere: Heat-Moon sees the once pristine river world we now use as a dump, cattle watering hole or industrial outland and rages at the political lethargy and community ignorance which condone and ignore these desecrations. I expected River-Horse to be another Blue Highways, but it is its own book with its own genius; here, the natural world takes the place of people met along the way, and what a companion it turns out to be.
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Title: Blue Highways:A Journey Into America by William Least Heat-Moon, William Least Heat Moon ISBN: 0316353299 Publisher: Little Brown & Co (Pap) Pub. Date: November, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: PrairyErth (A Deep Map): An Epic History of the Tallgrass Prairie Country by William Least Heat-Moon ISBN: 039592569X Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 15 February, 1999 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Columbus in the Americas by William Least Heat-Moon ISBN: 0471211893 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 30 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Roads: Driving America's Great Highways by Larry McMurtry ISBN: 0684868857 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: June, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Old Indian Trails by Walter McClintock, William Least Heat-Moon ISBN: 0395611555 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co (Pap) Pub. Date: August, 1992 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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