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Summary: What can I say? It's good.
Review: I read this book first 12 years ago when I was in high school. Since then I have read it 4-5 more times and every time I read it it is about something different. First it was fishing, then loving your family, religion or spirituality. This book is about life and if you are willing it will teach you more about life than any other book you can read. Gus' journeys have lessons for us all - whether or not fishing is a passion for you as it is for me. Throughout the years I have given away ten copies of this book to my closest friends because I want to give them what DJD has helped to give me.....Passion for life.
Rating:
Summary: The Only Book I've Read More Than Once
Review: Well that and Duncan's other novel, the Brother's K. It's unexplainable how good this novel is. I just thank the friend that first lent it to me and hope that Duncan comes out with something else soon! Gus is the most endearing character I have ever stumbled upon.
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Summary: Does a better book exist?
Review: I read alot of fiction and so have lots to compare this book to. This is definitely in the top ten of best books I have ever read, clear back to childhood. But the clincher here is that I think David Duncan is the number one, all time best author. If you read nothing else of his work, read "The River Why?" But after you read it, you WILL want to read more.
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Summary: Need I say more? Just read down the list of DJD fans....
Review: I picked up this book as a recommended read by the staff of a Seattle bookstore, and it immediately became my all-time favorite. Need more convincing? Just read below. It is truly one of the greatest books of all-time American literature.
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Summary: The Most Memorable Book I've Ever Read
Review: A lot of books can have an impact while you're reading them, but this one just keeps on providing pleasure. I just reread this book after having not read it for several years. I was prompted to revisit it because my memories of the characters and situations could instantly bring a smile to my cheeks or a tear to my eye even years after reading about them. I can't think of a book which has provided me with more pleasure over time.
If you're ever feeling cold or calloused and have a need to feel human again, this is the book for you.
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Summary: The book I give away frequently
Review: A few years back, I talked to a friend I hadn't heard from in a few years and she asked how I was doing. I replied, "Pretty good, but I have this incredible urge to go stand in a river for a couple of weeks fly-fishing." (I've never fly-fished in my life.) She said, "You just read The River Why, didn't you?" Duncan is masterful at playing the reader as well as Gus plays a fish. He sinks the hook into you so subtly, you're not even aware it's there and guides you to realizations about yourself. The River Why may be the most spiritual book I've ever read, and yet is never santimonious. When I travel, I take a copy of this book along to read on the plane. More often than not, I wind up giving it away to a perfect stranger in the seat next to me.
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Summary: If you don't care about fishing, it still sings ...
Review: I don't much about fishing and I certainly don't know about fly-tying, but this book makes me care about both in ways I didn't expect. Talk about spirituality seems to deaden it and the author wisely keeps it in check with humor and color and awkwardness. The sequence of Gus' awakening tophilosophy while meeting an all-but-talking (and that's taken care of) dog, is a perfect summary of the author's ability to get big ideas across without sounding like it. I particularly enjoyed the quest that ends with a mud-soaked weary pilgrim heading home without being quite sure what was achieved, but feeling much better. The magic of the singing mouse and Bill Bob, the dree-frees and the chipmunks, Ernie II and Eddy, leave this reader happy, even as I accept the hook. It is easy to give up on love and magic and real toil, but the writer doesn't and it's very cool.
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Summary: I believe I will just read this book from now on.
Review: An excellent book about, as someone has already said, "fishing, sort of." A fishing guide commended it to me, and it is the best advice I ever received from him. I've really LOVED a lot of books in my time, but this one is in a league of its own. Superb. David James Duncan captures so much that I would like to think is "right there but I can't articulate it" that it kind of made me feel bad that I had to read this book to figure out a lot of stuff in my life. Anyway...heckuva book. Buy it, pass it on.
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Summary: Hope you are working on something else David.
Review: Duncan has taken the microcosm of the angling world and expanded it into the macrocosm of being. By creating something out of thin air, by making analogies of mundane activities like fishing, with lofty concepts such as religion, we get obvious insights into religion. We all develop these mental structures that resemble the chitinous shells of crayfish and lobsters. We need them. We are protected by them. Finally, Duncan proposes that they are real, and his is made of love. My favorite section of the book is when Gus stumbles upon the beautiful creature Eddy, fishing from a tree. This whole episode and it's final conclusion is one of those Hornblower type situations that make me raise my fist and say YES! On both sides, IT'S THE UNSEEN HEROS BEING SEEN BEING A HERO WITHOUT KNOWING ANYBODY IS WATCHING. Maybe this is the way to make a contribution to environmentalism. Is Gus something like Silas Marner? Is Duncan something like George Eliot? Are Silas Marner and The River Why saying the same thing and do I like the River Why better because I can relate to it more? The difference between the community that Gus finally embraces and the community that Silas Marner finally embraces is that Gus's community has been through the crucible of time and experience. Gus's community, perhaps with the exception of the farmer family, is made up of people who have made conscious decisions, choices, about their lifestyles. That's the difference, and that is why I can relate to it more. ALL of these people have had the benifit or misfortune to see firsthand what time can do. Silas Marner's village people were static. We can't go to Silas' village because it doesn't exist anymore.
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional
Review: I've never read a book I like better. It struck a chord and took my line way into the backing.
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