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Summary: Blue Highways via the Water
Review: William Least Heat-Moon set out many years ago to see the country by travelling only on "Blue Highways"--those roads marked on a map that never achieve four-lane or divided highway status. Reading it in high school, I was captivated by his love for adventure and people. Well, he's done it again with "River Horse"--doing the same thing but only by river this time. His writing skills make you believe you are right there with him, from sights to sound to smell. For anyone who has the thirst for adventure, or who has only dreamed of it ... this book will take you to a new plain. I highly recommend it - Mr. Heat-Moon is a gifted writer who is already planning his next escapade.
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Summary: Least-Moon Does It Again
Review: Does it again, outstanding book by the author of Blue Highways, excellent wordsmith, takes a rather dull trip and makes it interesting. Could have been a little more technical for us boat people and his refferences to the Lewis-Clark journals were a little out of sync. This book is so much better than PrairyErth, and close to Highways. I could recommend to anybody and it will become an American classic. Will be looking forward to his next one.
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Summary: Not as good as his previous, but still a good read
Review: I became a big fan of William Least Heat-Moon after reading Blue Highways and PrairyErth. Such humor, observation, and insightfulness! River Horse falls a little short of the previous two. Although interesting enough and very readable, his river journey seemed tense and forced, leaving me with the unanswered question of what the point of the whole trip was. I am glad he brought up the subject of cattle polluting and breaking down the banks of rivers here in Montana and other western states, we need to address this problem in the future. Cows have no business in our waterways!The status quo is no longer acceptable!
Caren Most Cold-Sun ;-)
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Summary: Long Time Back
Review: My 89 year old Mom frequently uses the phrase "long time back" when she relates a story from her childhood or other young years. This book, while written to describe a recent odyssey of a man "westering" across America by waterway, really made me feel as if I were long time back with the Lewis and Clark "Voyage of Discovery." This is a great book.
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Summary: Not his best effort
Review: I liked the historical references in this book.(e.g. Lewis & Clark diaries) and liked the descriptions of the surrounding terrain and the waterways. I had also liked Mr. Heat-Moons two previous books very much. What I did not like was the dry descriptions of their daily routines, the vague descriptions of his feelings and what drove him to undertake such a journey and his references to those who helped him as "Pilotis" , "Photographer" and etc. Did these people really exist? If so, why are their names and real personalities described so mysteriously? I took these vagaries throughout as an insult to my intelligence and sense of interest. These things detracted from the story. The depth which was in his previous two books was really lacking here. I got the sense that he wrote this in a hurry. I hated to say this as I admired his writing and sense of adventure, sense of respect for those he met, sense of history, in his other books. This book really fell short. I had looked to this book in anticipation after so liking his others and was a little disappointed.
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Summary: Blue Highways Redux
Review: This could have been a great adventure story. Heat-Moon is a master storyteller and,in parts,the book is very entertaining. It is spoiled,however, by being overly long and by the authors constant sermonizing about his own Environmentalist agenda. He rails against Mining,Hydro-electric power,cattle grazing and private property in general. Keep it to yourself,Mr.Heat-Moon, I didn't enjoy the lecture.
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Summary: a guide to my own journey
Review: I am only 100 pages into this book -- and already owe Heat Moon at least a case of his favored stout. I have long dreamed of making a similar journey -- this book will be my guide for the "Voyage of the Island Dreamer". Read this book for your own dream -- either of a similar journey on the river -- or one in your mind to enjoy the beauty, spirit and uniqueness of our country from riversedge.
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Summary: Engaging
Review: I found this book to be engaging and informative. If you like history and geography combined with a travel log this is for you. I read it over several days with my atlas at hand and I have bought several copies for Christmas gifts.
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Summary: go with the flow
Review: the author has a dry wit for such a watery subject; the book has its own eddies, whirlpools, rapids, calm moments, but what has carried me forth is his sincere and cynical view that america is borne on the current of its past heritage and current disregard for the environment. he combines history with humor for a complex portrait of the country's clogged arteries; a poet, pilot, and pilgrim.
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Summary: "If a Grail Appears, the Soul Must Follow"
Review: Most of us, after a certain point past adulthood, become interested in the idea of our lives as journeys. At that point, many of us look back, sometimes for a long time, before we begin to even look forward, let alone move that way. That interest is what compelled me to read River-Horse. I expected to find another Blue Highways, another chronical, not just of travels, but of self-discovery. I wasn't disappointed. Not that Heat-Moon speaks with self-absorption or uses the book to detail his soul-searching or even clearly reveals what his quest was for, other than to satisfy his thirst for a river voyage. Very briefly he talks about what prompted the journey and what it meant to him; as he puts it, late in his story, I believed the long rivering necessary to my continuance as a man. Mostly, though, he simply shares his journey and what he saw and felt and thought and learned along the way. The result is a book that can reach out, engage, and finally enfold a reader on many levels. One of these levels includes his sketches of the people who fed, sheltered, advised, amused, helped, and hindered him on his voyage. His accounts of them in their homes, inns, cafes, pubs, bars and other habitats are reason enough to read the book. Another level is the author's own wonder and outrage at the changes wrought upon the rivers by man since Lewis and Clark first explored them, the braiding of their currents and the warping of their natural courses by dam-builders and the unending streams of garbage tossed into them. And his frequent references to the chronicles of explorers and rivermen who saw the same waters in other centuries provide a level of historical underpinning. For me personally, a couple of additional levels evolved. As a native Missourian living near the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers, I wanted to hear what Heat-Moon, another Missourian, had to say about them. Then too, the trim, white-haired man holding forth at a local book-signing didn't strike me as a likely pilot of the journey described in River-Horse (I could see him in a study sipping tea or lecturing in a classroom, but not trying to moor a small watercraft in flood-riled currents), and yet there he was, casually describing his 5,000-mile trip. I guess you could say I'd become curious about the levels present in the author as well as in his book. And finally, perhaps the best level on which to enjoy this book is simply the way Heat-Moon tells his story - like the master craftsman he is - with honesty, a keen sense of humor, and simultaneous amusement and wonder at life in general.
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