Rating: 
Summary: I haven't even finished it yet, and it's one of the best!
Review: Ferrol Sams' trilogy! I never thought Ayn Rand's 'Fountain Head' or 'Atlas Shrugged' could be topped but that was before I discovered Porter Longstreet Osborne, Jr. and Boston Harbor Jones. Now whatever will I do without them? Why hasn't a movie been made-------it could never do the books justice. One of my favorite lines referring to Vashti Clemmons.....'the one with the gorgeous body and the buck teeth she could have gnawed an apple through a knot-hole with'-- Thank you, Ferrol Sams for your delightfully entertaining stories and characters I will always remember.
Rating:
Summary: Hard to beat
Review: Ferrol Sams' trilogy! I never thought Ayn Rand's 'Fountain Head' or 'Atlas Shrugged' could be topped but that was before I discovered Porter Longstreet Osborne, Jr. and Boston Harbor Jones. Now whatever will I do without them? Why hasn't a movie been made-------it could never do the books justice. One of my favorite lines referring to Vashti Clemmons.....'the one with the gorgeous body and the buck teeth she could have gnawed an apple through a knot-hole with'-- Thank you, Ferrol Sams for your delightfully entertaining stories and characters I will always remember.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun, pleasant and uplifting
Review: I just picked this book up randomly from my shelf and could not believe how much I enjoyed it. Yes, it is a tad unrealistic, but the hilarious characters and their insights into living make it worth it. I had no idea it was a trilogy-- I will definitely be reading the other two.
For the reviewer who was wondering about the title-- at the very end of the book, when Porter goes with the law student to the Communist meeting at night, they end up sitting by the river and he hears the "whisper of the river". I almost missed it.
Rating:
Summary: Fun, pleasant and uplifting
Review: I just picked this book up randomly from my shelf and could not believe how much I enjoyed it. Yes, it is a tad unrealistic, but the hilarious characters and their insights into living make it worth it. I had no idea it was a trilogy-- I will definitely be reading the other two.
For the reviewer who was wondering about the title-- at the very end of the book, when Porter goes with the law student to the Communist meeting at night, they end up sitting by the river and he hears the "whisper of the river". I almost missed it.
Rating: 
Summary: Unrealistic yet funny...
Review: I too was required by Mercer to read this book for my freshman year... I personally thought it was very unrealistic and pointless (seeing I was supposed to read it for school, didn't figure out how this was supposed to help me in college)... The only positive thing I will give this book is that it was outright hilarious at times - so if you're reading it for pure pleasure, its a funny read.I do have one question, why is it called The Whisper of the River? Did anyone figure that out?
Rating:
Summary: I haven't even finished it yet, and it's one of the best!
Review: I'm on page 412 of 528, and I'm enjoying the book tremendously. Even though I HAVE to read it for an assignment, I would probably desire to read it for personal enjoyment.
Rating:
Summary: Glued to the pages!
Review: If you are unaware of the author Ferrol Sams, you are missing a true giant in American literature. This second book of the Porter Osborne trilogy is just as golden as Run With the Horsemen. More than just a coming of age novel, Sams provides intricate detail into young Osborne's life, feelings and thoughts. Quite moving and actually sad when you find the last page is near, you'll quickly want to open up When All the World Was Young (#3). Dr. Sams is still practicing medicine in Georgia and has given us a treasure in his writings. Well worth it to purchase not only this book, but all three since you will find yourself thinking about them often after you've experienced them.
Rating:
Summary: UPLIFTING AND GENUINE
Review: It has been a long time since reading this book. It was one of the first books I ever read cover to cover. Tremendous coming of age book! Read the first time in college. It was given to me by my Fraternity Big Brother. We are KA's just as Porter elected to be. Wonderfully funny and would recommend others read!
Rating:
Summary: wonderfully poignant tale of college days in middle Georgia.
Review: It's been over 10 years since I first read the book. Recommended by a fellow (presbyterian) clergyman, I looked at the jacket of the book he was showing me only to be stunned to realize that it was about a boy who attended the same college I attended, in a state far away. Not only that, but in reading the book, I discovered that I'd resided for a time in the same dormitory room, albeit several decades past the late 1930's. The book was painfully and poignantly real, from the descriptions of life in that particular dormitory room (I can see the room and scenery outside the windows even to this day) to life in Macon (some of the stories and experiences he went through were almost eerily familiar). Ferrol Sams is an incredibly gifted writer who I wish had started writing years earlier. His corpus of books, though relatively small, are all treasures and treasured. BTW, having graduated years earlier then a previous reviewer, let me point out that "Willingham University" was taken from what was then Willingham Chapel, not "Auditorium". It was during the 1970's that the former baptist church next door to Willingham Chapel was sold to Mercer and became the Newton Chapel at Mercer. At that point, Willingham Chapel became Willingham Auditorium.
Rating:
Summary: Wish the ending was different... BUT
Review: Mercer is requiring their incoming freshman to read this book. Ferrol Sams was apparently an alumni and Willingham U is really Mercer. Some of Porter's antics were apparently first hand true stories acted out by Ferrol. (The only one I know about for sure is the one where he is throwing something off the tower).
This book is beautifully written and incredibly easy to read, the fine descriptions with rolling four and five syllable words not withstanding. There are not many books a 47-year-old mother and her 18-year-old son could both enjoy so much!
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