The River Why

Duncan, David James

ISBN 10: 0871563215 / ISBN 13: 9780871563217

Published by Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1983

About this Item

1st Edition. Hardcover. Signed on the title page in blue ink, also inscribed on the half title page in green ink. Author's first book. Full number line. Toning to dust jacket and past downs.

Seller Inventory # 16385

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The River Why
• Publisher: Sierra Club Books, San Francisco
• Publication Date: 1983
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0871563215
• ISBN 13: 9780871563217
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: Near fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: near fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Sporting

About this title

Synopsis

Since its publication by Sierra Club Books nearly two decades ago, The River Why has become a classic, standing with Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It as the most-read fiction about fly-fishing of our era. Duncan's protagonist, Gus Orviston, is an irreverent young flyfisherman--a vibrant character who makes us laugh easily and feel deeply, and who speaks with startling truth about the way we live.
Leaving behind a madcap, fishing-obsessed family, Gus embarks on an extraordinary voyage of self-discovery along his beloved Oregon rivers. What he unexpectedly finds is man's wanton destruction of nature and a burning desire to commit himself to its preservation.
The River Why is a tale that gives a contemporary voice to the concerns and hopes of all living things on this beautiful, watery planet. It is the story of one man's search for meaning, for love, and for a sane way to live.

Review

Praise for The River Why:
"A whirlwind, madcap, humorous and sensitive novel" "New York Times""

Praise for The River Why:
"A whirlwind, madcap, humorous and sensitive novel" New York Times"

"A hymn to the waters of the earth and the wholeness of life. It is also funny." Miami Herald"

"A veritable epic of flyfishing... done in a high-velocity, exuberant style, sprawling in scale, heedless of form... The feeling for and evocation of the imperiled natural world is rhapsodic in its intensity; the writing energetic, literary in a distinctly American way... So amiable is the prevailing tone that the flowing narrative is able to absorb Koranic and Eastern mysticisms, Tao, Sufism, Zen-the religions of oneness and gospel of love-without turning into the kind of maudlin choral chanting that so often disfigures treatments of fusion of self and the world." Publishers Weekly"

This is a modern-repeat, modern -tale of maturity and redemption. Christian Science Monitor"