Description:
The Mississippi, winding brown spine of America, provides the backbone of this elegiac book by writer and boating enthusiast Daniel Spurr. In simple, forthright language, his River of Forgotten Days intertwines the bittersweet tale of Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle--who, in the 17th century, became the first European to navigate the length of the Big Muddy--with the author's own adventures on the Mississippi in a homely but durable fishing boat named Pearl. Much like the river, Spurr's prose flows at its own pace, shifting rhythmically between the historical facts (so far as they are known) of LaSalle's journey and Spurr's own pilgrimage, born of a childhood fascination with both La Salle and the untamed "pre-American" wilderness that seduced--and often destroyed--early European explorers. Accompanied by his seven-year-old son (whom he hopes to wean, if only temporarily, from his Game Boy), Spurr searches out touchstones of La Salle's epic voyage. Some are unspoiled enough to induce reveries of ghostly wolf packs and buffalo-darkened plains; most are soulless suburban outposts offering only cracked asphalt and empty beer cans. All is not lost, however; River of Forgotten Days brings to life a true American icon, a still-powerful river where, despite levees stretching from Illinois to the Delta, a whiff of pre-America remains for those who care to seek it out. And, especially important for those of us who live far from the mighty Mississippi, Spurr's book includes photographs and illustrations of both the river and the historical sites and people associated with it. --Rebecca Gleason
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