Rating: 
Summary: More than a travel book
Review: I felt that I was on board the River Horse as it motored the Hudson, Erie Canal, Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, Columbia and all the other rivers it transited on its inland journey between the Atlantic and Pacific. Least-Moon's journal is more than a description of the sites on the journey; it described the moments of elation and frustration that were felt by the author and the crew, the beauty of the rivers and the tackiness caused by man. I agree with some of the other reviews that the individuals who were melded together as Pilotis, Heat-Moon's companion on the voyage should have been identified; that literary device is a distraction from an otherwise excellent book. I have read all three of Heat-Moon's books - all excellent and of the five-star category.
Rating: 
Summary: Compelling Fourney
Review: River Horse was a pleasant surprise. I picked up the book because I love boats and rivers, and initially found Heat-Moon's style irritating. He reaches for vocabulary he doesn't need and works too hard to impress with that vocabulary. But in his reaching, he finds descriptive devices I haven't seen before, and there is no question he is a talented describer, enough so that I was able to overlook the style flaw (it doesn't take an editor to notice). The story is fascinating, and the journey difficult and colorful, with lots of historically accurate anecdotes and references to Lewis & Clark and other similar expeditions.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable Escape
Review: Heat Moon describes small town America from a most original perspective and you feel as though you're along for the ride. There is an excellent passage about the boredom along the trip in which Heat Moon runs thoughts in between the words river river river and its connotation is ingenuitive and amusing.
Rating: 
Summary: Maddening! I Wonder What Could Have Been?
Review: 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:
Summary: River-Horse: A Rich and Poignant Adventure
Review: While Amazon reviewers overwhelmingly show a high, if sometimes grudging regard for River-Horse, it's clear that the naysayers fall into two categories: those whose concern for our American lands and waters is nil and those with little capacity to handle vocabulary that goes beyond sitcom expression. Heat-Moon's books have always used our language to its fullest expression, both in individual words and in descriptive passages. He is not a writer for someone who wants things neatly packaged in easy sound bytes, as expected by those few readers who completely miss the rich and poignant commentary in River-Horse. This book is profound and poetic, but it will indeed irritate anti-environmentalists and readers incapable of being challenged by thoughts not their own or charmed by uncommon words. River-Horse will become a classic not just of American travel but of American literature. I got a real hoot from the guy who spouted his opinion of River-Horse but concluded that Heat-Moon should keep his views to himself. Right-wingers and TVlanders, beware this book!
Rating:
Summary: An Insider's View
Review: It was an epic voyage deserving praise, countering opinion on what it was or what it was not. Investing considerable research into the journey, the author describes the places and the people living along our nation's waterways, not generally seen from the interstates. Although not as personable as his account of road travel in Blue Highways, the book presents the reader with a marvelous account of the interior of our nation in a rich story told by an accomplished contemporary historian and author. The book's a good read. In a previous review, one contributer erroniously referred to the small boat Nikawa as Ikawa. The boat's name Nikawa is a synthesized word coined from the Osage language. It means river horse or hippopatamus, something foreign to North American peoples, but a strong animal crossing the waters. I'm one of the seven Piloti in this book. I challenge you to find me! Linda J. Barton, RN
Rating: 
Summary: Reasonable book, but a bit slow.
Review: I loved the concept of the book, but for some reason this dragged more than "Blue Highways". I think the problem with it is that the author spent more time talking to the people he met in "Blue Highways" which made the narrative in that book easier to get through. I think that there are two reasons why Least Heat Moon did not talk to as many people in this book. One is that there is less of an opportunity to meet people on the rivers. Secondly, they needed to get to the western rivers while there was still enough water from snow-melt in them, there was more of a rushed feel to this book. What I liked about "Blue Highways" was that Least Heat Moon did not care how long he took on that trip and so would spend time going on fishing boats and shuttling hitch-hikers around. On this trip, he was working under a time crunch and could not follow some of the more interesting stories.
Rating:
Summary: a better trip than it is a book
Review: Going across North America in a boat is a great idea for a travel book. And you would think that William Least Heat-Moon would be just the guy to write it. Usually he would be. Not this time. Toward the very end of the book the author spills his personal beans, and suddenly the unfamiliar tone of the entire book makes sense. William Least Heat-Moon's actual surname is William Trogdon and in _River Horse_ the blood seeping from the wounds in William Trogon's life discolors the bandage that is his narrative of America's riparian landscape. As a result we have to listen to a cranky, bitter, almost solipsistic man narrate the details of his passage across America. Previous reviewers have complained about the author's failure to keep his political views out of the book. I happen to agree with most, if not all, of Least Heat-Moon's political views and I still found them irritating in the context of this book because they come across as pot-shots taken from a moving boat. He never sufficiently explains the context of the man vs. land problems that he encounters; he simply judges them in condescending, Sierra-Club type tones and motors on. All this being said, I still enjoyed many passages of the book, particularly the large middle portion that describes the trek up the Missouri River. Least Heat-Moon frequently evokes memories of the Lewis & Clark expedition and, having just read Stephen Ambrose's book earlier this year, the majesty of the landscape was still fresh in my mind. Least Heat-Moon's description of the state of the river and the surrounding landscape in the late 1990s stands in stark and sad contrast with that described by the Corps of Discovery in the first decade of the 19th century. I agree with other reviewers that it was distracting and off-putting for the author to abstract and anonymize his fellow travellers. However, having finished the book and now knowing that the entire voyage was conducted during the disintegration of his second marriage, it now stands to reason that the people around him would seem to him to be a bit distant and faceless. This is a narrative told by a depressed man. He confesses that he chose to make the trip rather than to patch up his marriage because he wouldn't be worth being married to, if he didn't make the trip. Frankly, his defense of that assertion would be a lot more interesting to read than it was to have to listen to him shoot at proverbial ducks in a barrel like drunken jerks with large speedboats, ranchers who overgraze government land and bored lockmasters. Trogdon wrote _Blue Highways_ after the end of his first marriage. He seemed to feel compelled to go out into the world and meet other people. In _River Horse_ he is still in the middle of the collapse and can not seem to get out of himself often enough or for long enough to really meet the people he is encountering along the way or even to fully characterize the people who are travelling with him. In addition, he is constantly making decisions that get him, his companions and his boat(s) into trouble, and all of them seem like the decisions of a distracted man. I am frustrated by travel narratives told by inept travellers. I was able to keep reading this book because he never glossed over or made light of his sloppiness. William Least Heat-Moon has never been a John McPhee, the nearly invisible narrator, but William Trogdon has never before been so obviously between Least Heat-Moon and his subject before. Read in this light, _River Horse_ is sad and fascinating.
Rating:
Summary: Join LHM and Nikawa on this Journey
Review: After finishing "Blue Hiways" some time ago, and enjoying it so much, I turned to Least Heat-Moon's boat gig, "River horse." Overall I liked this work. This was in some ways similar of course, but genuinely different than his first over-land trip with "Ghost Dancing." "Nikawa" is a new form of transport, and the route is fixed, and there is a schedule that is adhered to, understandably. And again, LHM takes himself and his readers to a part of America most of us miss, just as in his first book. "Pilotis," the assistant in this journey reminded me of the "Phaedrus" concept used by Pirsig, but Pirsig was Phaedrus, and Pilotis was a friend of LHM's, an actual companion. To me it is free-flow reading, and descriptive of the natural surroundings he encountered near and afar, on this 5,000 mile journey into the Real America. How many reading of this journey wanted to leave their cubicles and mundane suburban life behind while reading "River Horse?" I did. And I have! This book can be a bit "prosy" and he offers thoughts and views on "this and that." It is quite an interesting journey. Give it a read. LHM is free, and can make you dream.
Rating:
Summary: A superb travel book
Review: Rarely you see a journey book so rich,so teeming whit wimsical and profound details of little known town history,so sumptuously written. This book is a feast for the mind as well as for the soul.For is the soul of America that one finds here,but also the soul of man. A man who is to be connected to his place in Nature,if he is to survive.But this lesson William is giving is never pedantic,but given in his unique humorous manner.I've loved Blue Highways,and River Horse is even better.A real Bruce Chatwin of the USA.
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