Goodbye to a River

Rating:
Summary: John Graves "ruminations" on Texas living
Review: I was only a few pages into this book when I realized that I was reading a person who was the real thing. John Graves is a master wordsmith, a thinker, and a person who has the background and experiences to address the subject. As a former Marine and a native Texan, I admit that I might have identified with him a bit more strongly than some, but there is no question that his prose is from a gifted and talented pen. I have experienced part of the trip he described (the first couple of days...spectacular sandstone bluffs and all...)so it made the read more enjoyable and absorbing for me. The book I read was borrowed, so naturally, I have to have my own copy as well as other of his efforts.

Rating:
Summary: Real Texas Literature
Review: I was only a few pages into this book when I realized that I was reading a person who was the real thing. John Graves is a master wordsmith, a thinker, and a person who has the background and experiences to address the subject. As a former Marine and a native Texan, I admit that I might have identified with him a bit more strongly than some, but there is no question that his prose is from a gifted and talented pen. I have experienced part of the trip he described (the first couple of days...spectacular sandstone bluffs and all...)so it made the read more enjoyable and absorbing for me. The book I read was borrowed, so naturally, I have to have my own copy as well as other of his efforts.

Rating:
Summary: WATER.WOODS.WORDS
Review: JOHN GRAVES IS A MISNOMER FOR THE LOCALS.. GLENROSE TEXAS FOLK DON'T OFTEN MENTION HIM WHEN LISTING THEIR DINASOUR TRACKS IN THE RIVERBED OR BAR-B-Q SPOTS FOR THE TOURISTS...OH HOW UMFAMALIARITY INBREEDS CONTEMPT...MAYBE WHEN HIS WORKS ARE VIDEOED THE SUNDOWNS ON THE BRAZOS RIVER WILL TINT THE PERCEPTION OF LOCALS TO VALUE AND PROMOTE THE AUTHOR AS A NATIVE TREASURE SWEETER THAN THE NATIVE PECAN.WE KNOW ALL THE BENDS AND PROMITORIES BECAUSE WE HAVE RIDDEN MANY OF THEM ON HORSEBACK. NOW WE ARE ABLE TO KNOW AND ACTUALLY HEAR THE "IF THESE OAKS COULD ONLY TALK TALES". AUTHOR GRAVES IS A SHORT STORY TELLER AND SEEMS BEST IF ALLOWED TO LET GEOGRAPHIC FEATURES CONJURE UP EACH CAMPFIRE TALE WHICH THEN DRAWS IN THE FRONTIER HISTORY OF THE STREAMSIDE LOCALE JUST AS THE GLOWING CEDAR STUMP PULLS IN THE OXYGEN LEAVING US READERS BREATHLESS! IN OTHER WORDS HE TAKES THAT GIANT OLD COTTONWOOD TREE AND GOES BACK IN TIME TO THE NIGHT ITS OUTSTRETCHED LIMBS...STRETCHED SOMEONE'S NECK OR YOUR IMAGINATION.CR2

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Summary: The history of Texas pioneers told in a river adventure.
Review: John Graves weaves the history of Texas pioneers into his one man canoe trip down the Brazos river. In 1962 Texas dammed one of its greatest rivers- the Brazos - creating a series of popular recreational lakes, but erasing the remaining vestiges of pioneers cabins and ranches. John Graves decides to paddle the river by canoe one last time and sets in west of Dallas for a journey that takes him all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way he tells the history of Texas in a series of sometimes funny, but often hair raising anecdotes. This title is considered a classic in Texas and I am happy to see it available here at Amazon. Goodbye to a River is a warm and wandering tale that reads like a good story told around a campfire.

Rating:
Summary: A Texas classic from Texas's finest prose stylist
Review: This fine book is a compelling mixture of armchair history and philosophy, anecdote, and personal reflection. Contrary to what [e-mail] wrote in a review I otherwise second, the book does not take Graves all the way to the Gulf but stops well short of there, at Lake Whitney. (It begins at the foot of the Possum Kingdom Lake dam in Palo Pinto county.) Along his canoe trip, accompanied by his nameless "companion," a dog, Graves relates anecdotes he heard as a Fort Worth boy who grew up along the river, including much Indian and pioneer lore; he also imparts much knowledge of native flora and fauna and geology. His philosophical musings are compelling if sometimes longwinded. Some may find the prose stilted at times, but the overall feel of the book's prose is elegiac, nostaligiac, and autumnal

Rating:
Summary: An eternal capsule that becomes part of you.
Review: This meeting of the past, the present and the ugly future of change in the form of a passage down a wild river that will be transfomed is timelessly described by an evangelist of observation. You want to be this John Graves, this investigator of what is timeless and human. Excellent!

Rating:
Summary: The Best Book on Texas
Review: Unitl recently, Texas was a state that drew its strength from the land, whether from the East Texas cotton and oil or the West Texas cattle and oil. John Graves recognizes this by skillfully weaving this story of the land through the people who conquered it. On his canoe trip down the Brazos, he looks at the land with a fond lonelieness for what it once was, stirring emotions in all Texans who have left the rural ways of our predecessors. Noone can speak of knowing Texas without reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: The best book ever, without exaggeration.
Review: With all the previous and excellent reviews for this wonderful book, I will only add brief personal comments:

This was recommended to me for a Texas history course, but this is not merely the best history book I have come across, but this is the best book I have read bar none. If you read for self-discovery, history or for appreciation of good writing, then you will not leave this book on your shelf disappointed when you are done. You will, if you are like me, go and find your parents or your grandparents or both, hug them and say, "I never appreciated what you did and what you left behind for my generation. Thank you."

And thank you, John Graves.