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Summary: Gus is one hip cat
Review: I loved this book. It mixes fishing in with philosophy, religion, mortality, love, and the evolving soul. I've read it 5 times in as many years and I've bought it for several people. David J. Duncan is an entertaining, enlightenting writer. Keep on fishin'.
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Summary: The best book I've ever read!
Review: I first read this book about 6 years ago and have since re-read it often. Friends and family got sick of me recommending it and finally read it and they loved it as well. My writing abilities are too crappy to give this novel the praise it deserves. DJD's other books are outstanding also but this one is my favorite.
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Summary: on my must-read list
Review: A dreefee for you:Entertaining, provocative, and full of wit, not to mention the sweet little romance thrown in there for good measure. Masterfully done. Funny as hell too. My favorite little quote: "Save gas. Fart in a jar." from Ma's bumper sticker to Bill Bob. Bill Bob is just too much! I think he is suppose to impersonate a technological gadget man, who is searching for some meaning through dumb luck or something. Reminds me of my own struggle with technology and what it means to be a humanist and a technologist at the same time. Thus, from a deep philosophical point of view, this book is a good comparision/contrast with Pirsig's Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. They are both journeys. Both deals with enlightenment, and what it means to be in touch with yourself. Duncan's treatment and solution is more romantic, while Pirsig's is academic, and more classical. Duncan is entertaining, while Pirsig is dry and depth-charged, packing each page with a huge punch. Duncan struggles with the solution by presenting it through narratives (making it easy to read), while Pirsig struggles with narratives but presents in highly chosen words (making it slow to read). Loved Duncan's treatment on the water molecules, and how science doesn't explain it. Pirsig, however, is more inclusive, and prefer a more middle of the road solution: To include science and classic understanding of the world, along with romantic and humane understanding of the world, he comes up with the concept Quality (kind of like Tao in Chinese Philosophy). I think if we cared about the Tao or the Quality, we wouldn't do such damaging things to the environment, because we'd care less about materialistic things and more about fulfillment. The Chinese Taoists were indeed some smart people. "A human child at birth undergoes a ritual almost identical to that inflicted upon trophy trout at death, to wit 1) the fish is whacked on the head, thus putting it out of its misery; the infant is whacked on the behind, thus initiating it into its misery." I am still on my path to more self-discovery, and more enlightenment, though I'm happy that I'm not in the misery hell-hole suggested to me at my own initiation into the world 27 years ago. Okay... that's enough for a 15 minute brain-fart email. I have to save gas. You're currently in much interesting territory than me right now. Read this book. Good lerk.
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Summary: Number one fave
Review: This is without a doubt my favorite book of all time. Excellent writing, laugh out loud stories, and a wisdom and philosophy that is timeless -- and important.
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Summary: My favorite book
Review: Duncan dives off high cliffs in this book, exploring the big issues without ever getting pretentious. He has fully explained the meaning of God and life, and I'm still not quite sure how he did it. Right next to Dostoevsky on my bookshelf.
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Summary: Wonderful, irreverant, and an absolute treasure
Review: Not since the brutal knife-edged keenness of Edward Abbey has any author come so close to fulfilling the dream of producing a GREAT novel. Fishing, in The River Why is only the metaphor for the life lessons this story illustrates - lessons that I have ignored, or buried for all the wrong reasons - at the worst possible moments - lessons that this book slams home with humor, kindness, and terrifyingly real human frailty. You'll laugh, cry, ponder, wish, and wonder if that mirror that stares back at you isn't really the portal that fills David James Duncan with material.
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Summary: Intelligent, Introspective, Heartwarming
Review: While I have never fly fished in my life (nor done much bait fishing) this book is much more than a fisherman's take on life. The first sixty pages or so might bore you if you do not fish (which again, I don't). Stick with it, however, and you will be rewarded. The River Why is a beautiful story of a boy becoming a man, his kooky family, his quest to find himself and meaning to life, and his pathway to love. It draws you in and makes you rethink what life is about. With an environmental warning written into the story, it is a book everyone should read. Embrace the story, and embrace the message it contains!
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Summary: Duncan Sets the Hook
Review: First, it's not a book about fishing. Duncan uses fishing as one kind of bait, along with wonderful humor, beautiful writing and memorable characterization, to make a much larger, much more important set of points. Second, the plot isn't about fishing, or living in harmony with nature; it's about a young man's discovering what life really is. The Perfect Schedule - young Gus's plan for getting in the absolute maximum number of hours a day fishing - turns out to be a horrible failure. It takes a long time for Gus to realize something is wrong, including a harrowing adventure with a drowned man and some pretty serous sickness. Now it may be - ahem - that fisherpersons are more stubborn or more stupid, but Duncan has Gus discover that there are things more important than fishing, and that those things can lead to still greater things. And that all of that can make the fishing better. Third, while Duncan and Gus poke immense amounts of fun at it, this really is a re-casting of Izaak Walton's _The Compleat Fisherman_, although Walton is nearly unreadable and Duncan writes extraordinarily well. This book is also about more or less the same thing as those "witlesses" that Ma brings to grief, although both Gus and the Witlesses would likely deny it. One of Duncan's subtle messages is there, too. Fourth and last, like a fish taking a fly, when you read this book you will be so dazzled by the gorgeous fly of Duncan's humor, writing and characterization that you will miss the hook and line of his real message until, like Gus, the line of light has you and you feel that gentle tug in your heart. Beautiful and subtle, hilarious and passionate, charming and amazing, this book is simply an astonishing piece of writing. It's one of my ten or so favorite books, and likely will be one of yours, too.
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Summary: The River Why
Review: Rarely do you discover a book that speaks directly to you. Duncan has done just this in The River Why. Through the characters of Gus, Bill Bob, Titus, H2O, and Ma he is able to convey a philosophy and way of viewing our world that is a slap in the face without sounding pompous or preachy. The book can be read as a comedy in and of itself but interwoven through Duncan's creative and entertaining characters is a philosophical masterpiece that has hints of Desert Solitaire, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and Coyote Blue.
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Summary: Poignant and hilariously funny
Review: I first read "The River Why" more than 10 years ago. I go back to it again and again--re-read it in quiet enjoyment--read it aloud for my own pleasure in the rhythm of the words--quote it--turn people on to it whether they fly fish or not. This book is as much a jewel as a glittering spring-fed stream, whether you fish or not. It speaks to the universal human condition, and that, I have been told, is the basis of all great literature. If you can't identify with Gus, you really need to get out more!
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