Rating: 
Summary: Compelling but too self-absorbed
Review: I have to give Johnston credit for being able to record and recount this arduous trip with such clarity. When one is exhausted, hounded by sweat-sucking bees, fearing that she may not survive, it takes a lot of persistence to keep a thorough journal. She's done this and written competently about the adventure, but this book ultimately is a let-down. Here's why:
Johnston is too self-absorbed and often expects others to take care of her needs. Her luggage is lost and even after another member of the trip lends her a sleeping bag, she's miffed that no one would loan her an air mattress. She feels that because she has a back problem every one should accommodate her needs. It's classic lack of self-responsibility - you often see this on river trips and other risky expeditions. Just as Jon Krakauer discovers on his "assault" on Everest in "Into Thin Air," people on guided trips expect all their needs to be met. Rather than thinking what she could do, despite her physical limits, to help the group, she castigates the others for not helping her enough.
As a raft guide, journalist, and author ("A Sense of Place"), I'm aware of the challenges Johnston faced, but I wish she'd painted a better picture of the other people on the trip. We hear about the guides' daring rescues and Sylvie's preening, but we don't get more than a two-dimensional view of the other guests on the trip.
And I notice that though Johnston often talks about the jungle spirits, she doesn't revere the life of the jungle. She goes out of her way to toss a centipede in the river, smear a leach to death even though it wasn't on her, and chortles over drowned bees. Of course I can understand this reaction to pests but it shows a lack of reverence for the place.
A couple of quibbles: she often uses "oar" as a verb, as in the guide was "oaring" the boat. You don't oar a boat - you row it. And the cover isn't a real image - it's two pictures, one of a longboat superimposed on the rapids. I don't blame Johnston for the cover - doubtless she had little or nothing to do with it - but it seems somehow symbolic of the book's lack of authenticity.
Despite all these faults, once I started reading I wanted to keep going to the end.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful vicarious experience
Review: I love adventure travel, but not with the level of danger and discomfort experienced by Johnston & her cohorts on this exploratory journey. I loved the perspective offered by Johnston, and the trip was made much more vivid for me because of the personal focus of her account, including her terrific riff on menopause. After experiencing her astute insights and wonderful sense of ironic humor, I felt as close to having been there as I'd have wanted to be. Glad she took the trip for me!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful vicarious experience
Review: I love adventure travel, but not with the level of danger and discomfort experienced by Johnston & her cohorts on this exploratory journey. I loved the perspective offered by Johnston, and the trip was made much more vivid for me because of the personal focus of her account, including her terrific riff on menopause. After experiencing her astute insights and wonderful sense of ironic humor, I felt as close to having been there as I'd have wanted to be. Glad she took the trip for me!
Rating: 
Summary: River Wild
Review: I really enjoyed this book! I think it was well written and the story was very compelling. I feel as if I got just about as close as I care to get to the real thing. I know that the bees and bugs and mildew would have made me go mad. Having been on organized adventure trips, I think that she dealt very well with the various personalities of her travel companions. I think that they all did remarkably well under the circumstances. I don't think that it was their fault that they were so unprepared. As this had not been attempted before, they had no way of knowing the troubles they would encounter. This is a great read for any adventure lover or armchair traveler!
Rating:
Summary: Wild river, wilder ride
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this fast paced travel of a wild river coupled to a trip of self-discovery by the author. At one point she wakes in the dark of the night to find her tent is no longer pitched on a dry sand bar. The river is rising incessantly and the whole crew has to cling to vertical rock walls waiting for the flood to pass. In another place she has a quiet, reflective encounter with a leech that wants to befriend her, or at least her leg.
I've recommended this book to several friends and they have all enjoyed it.
Rating:
Summary: One of my all-time favorites
Review: I've bought this book as a gift for at least five other people and will probably buy more in the future.
Ms. Johnston uses the white-water rafting trip from hell as a metaphor for her voyage into menopause, lost youth, and self-discovery.
Don't miss it!
Rating:
Summary: An eye-opening rafting experience!
Review: Our book club selected and read this book. It received rave reviews from everyone. Most of us agreed that the bees would have been the end of us! (: It would be an especially good read during the summer.
Rating:
Summary: Better her than me!
Review: This book grew on me as I read it. As a backpacker & traveler who has "enjoyed" the occasional less-than-perfect adventure, I had difficulty sympathizing with Ms. Johnston. I hate to diss someone who's been through what was certainly a life-threatening experience, but I thought she came off whiney, particularly in the beginning of the book. As her personality seemed to grow on the rest of her group, though, it grew on me as well. I found her description of the hardships and excitement of the journey to be excellent, although I wish she'd fleshed-out the characters a little more.
Rating:
Summary: Better her than me!
Review: This book grew on me as I read it. As a backpacker & traveler who has "enjoyed" the occasional less-than-perfect adventure, I had difficulty sympathizing with Ms. Johnston. I hate to diss someone who's been through what was certainly a life-threatening experience, but I thought she came off whiney, particularly in the beginning of the book. As her personality seemed to grow on the rest of her group, though, it grew on me as well. I found her description of the hardships and excitement of the journey to be excellent, although I wish she'd fleshed-out the characters a little more.
Rating:
Summary: Funny, Harrowing, Moving
Review: This is the perfect airplane book, a comedy of misadventure that turns into an astonishing tale of gritty adventure with a parable about self-reliance folded in. Many people have told me that they read it one sitting; the smooth, fast-paced prose is addictive. I only wish there were pictures!
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