Goodbye to a River: John Graves' Reflection on the Passing of Time in a Narrative

Denise: Bought for my daughter. She has been raised on the river and was familiar with places in the book. She liked it. Said it was a little hard to read because it is an older book

United States on Jun 12, 2022

N. Thomas: Classic Texas novel. Great story!

Canada on Mar 28, 2021

Gary Power: This is a wonderful book which I came across mentioned in Lawrence Wright's also brilliant God Save Texas. The story is about a canoe journey on a part of the Brazos river in Texas before it was dammed. I get the felling it might have inspired Deliverance. The writing is vivid, inciteful and occasionally very funny. It has wonderful nature descriptions and history of Texas plus a very astute take on life and man's place in the world in general. I'll read it again.

United Kingdom on Jul 13, 2019

Michael Welsh: An erudite writer who vividly describes the experience of travelling down a Texas river alone except for his dog and for the ever-present echoes of the colourful but savage Frontier history which is the context for this thoughtful man's return there from the City.
journey.

Brilliantly descriptive and evocative writing.

United Kingdom on Apr 24, 2017

CK: (Please note, I am a male posting this review through the account that I share with my wife.)
I grew up in Texas and was very familiar with much of the land and lore, but went off to the Army in 1966 and, with the exception of two years at the University of Houston, have not lived back there since. Recently I read the obituary for John Graves in the Washington Post and found out about his book for the first time. I purchased it and read through it with a great degree of enjoyment. The book itself recounts a WWII combat veteran's 1950's solo (mostly) journey down a stretch of the Brazos River that he enjoyed in his childhood and believes will soon be lost to flood control dams (interestingly most of these dams were never built and many believe that that was result of the author's writings, first published in part in magazines.) The book consists of equal parts outdoor adventure (canoeing, fishing, hunting and interacting with locals); nostalgic recollections from his youth; the recounting of both factual history and local lore regarding the traveled area; and natural and philosophic observations about the environment and life in general. While a knowledge of Texas and its...

United States on Sep 06, 2013

John P. Jones III: An astonishing book, by an extraordinary writer, and more importantly, an extraordinary human being. The book assumes the form of a narrative of the author's three week solo canoe trip down the Brazos, a river about one hour by speeding car west of Ft. Worth, Texas; the journey was taken "way down in the fall," in late November, 1959, when the northerners begin to howl, and bring snow. By most estimations, it is not much of a river, and even the author says: "...on a salty river unloved, unlovable except by a few loners and ranchers and cedar-hill misanthropes." Graves gives only glimpses into his background, and if you blink, you might miss them. But consider, here is a man who has read Joyce's "Ulysses," and recalls that Leopold Bloom's father had slept with his dog, Athos, in order to cure the father's aches and pains, just as Graves was carrying a six-month-old dachshund he routinely refers to as "the passenger," for his own comfort. But Graves is equally well-grounded in the natural world, knows all the various types of trees, how they burn, and the appearance of the wood's grain, and that: "the white oaks are prime...one of the finest of aromatic fuels is a twisted,...

United States on Dec 07, 2009

Howard: I lived in Texas for 8 years and have seen the Brazos and the alligators and armadillos on its banks (although the Brazos that I saw was the section close to its mouth to the gulf and not the part that's described in this book). I have left Texas for a while now. On a recent trip back to Austin, I picked up this book in a local bookstore and I am glad I did.

In this book Graves blends travelogue, history, folklore and personal reflections in a highly readable account. It is personal, anecdotal, sentimental, but not overly melancholy. The language is relaxed, yet well crafted, it gives you the feel of an intimate dialog, but the author also has tight control over what he chooses to say instead of rambling to endless tedium. The conversations, though few, carry the authentic flavor of western Texas, and as other reviewers alluded to, remind one of Steinbeck's writing. In a sense Graves was the last link to that frontier era -- although he was too late himself for the bygone days, he looked backward into those days, and personally talked to people who were its last ruminants. Even this book was written nearly 50 years ago now. Today we can get some glimpses of replicas and...

United States on Dec 18, 2007