Perhaps it’s because I have been listening to my favorite pseudo-Christmas song – in which Joni Mitchell wishes for a river she “could skate away on,” – a lot lately, but I’ve noticed a wealth of popular titles with the word “river” in the title. Why so many river-themed tales?
The lovely last lines of Norman McLean’s A River Runs Through It may help explain the appeal of a river theme. This story of two brothers in early 20th-century Montana taught me everything I know about fly fishing.
Then there’s The River Wife by James Agee, a chronicle of French fur trapper Jacques Ducharme and river pirate, and the five women whose lives he touches. Ursula Hegi’s Stones from the River is another historical tale, focused on the lives of people in the small German town of Bergdorf before and during World War II.
Dennis Lehane’s Mystic River is a mystery centered on three childhood friends whose lives collide as adults when the teenage daughter of one of them is murdered. River of Darkness by Rennie Airth introduces John Madden, a Scotland Yard inspector haunted by his experiences in World War I, who is called upon to solve the grisly murders of an entire family.
There are at least two coming-of-age stories with river titles: Peace Like a River by Leif Enger and, more recently, Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell. In Enger’s book, a 1960s Minnesota family is uprooted when the eldest son disappears after killing two men. Once Upon a River is the story of Margo Crane, a 16-year-old sharpshooter who boats down Michigan’s Stark River, Huck Finn-style, after a series of family tragedies.
Last but not least are the nonfiction titles, including River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candice Millard (a chronicle of Teddy’s 1914 expedition in the Amazon basin) and River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler (which recounts the author’s experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer in a small Chinese city). But perhaps the most river-related book on the list is River-horse by William Least Heat Moon. In it, the author describes traveling by river from New York to Oregon in a small boat.
What books am I missing? Which river title would you recommend most?
