Eight erstwhile ascetics paddled down the Rio Grande and camped at the Range Cafe in Bernalillo. There they set up camp, gathered some driftwood, and skinned a small squirrel to share among themselves. By nightfall the pup had quieted down and they waxed philosophically:Bob S.: Obviously I loved it. Déjà vu all over again. All those connections to John Graves, a great writer. Not only a good writer but an instructor in history and the environment. I was a Boy Scout in the old days, and when I contacted one of my old Boy Scout companions from those Fort Worth days, he said, "Hey, that book is required reading today!" Just as interesting as our January selection. Much like Hillbilly Elegy - there were mean, evil people could persevere out there in the frontier. The author nailed it at various levels. I give it an A.
Ron B: I thought it was very good. I think it belongs on our Required History Reading shelf. Lively, colorful characters A.
Mike B: Last month I felt so sorry for poor ol' Jack. Had to follow A Gentleman in Moscow, and he had picked some book about some guy paddling down some Texas river. The members are gonna kill him. OK, I'll read a little and ... but wait! This is good! Dang good! Did you see what those Comanches did to Jesse Veale? Can you believe those guys would work up a dummy? And the Old Man and those local characters ... The sense of humor and the philosophy left me feeling all warm and cozy like a pup under a tarp in a rainstorm on a cold night: solid A.
Kenny G: I have mixed emotions - he is an excellent writer but at times I was confused by his writing. His experiences and the settler/Comanche conflicts eventually were a little repetitious. Would have been nice to have an Index. But I would still recommend it: B+
Charlie: Very good writing, excellent wordsmithing. However, floating down a river didn't catch my fancy: B
Karl: If I had understood before I started that this was a travelogue with stories and philosophy thrown in, it might have helped. Nevertheless, it was great fun to follow his progress on Google Earth. I'm glad I read it: B+
Bob W: I give it a B+ I think you get out of a book what you put into it.
Jack F: I enjoyed it. I grew up on Killbuck Creek in Northeastern Ohio (which runs between Wooster and Coshocton, as you may know). I could (and did) shoot squirrels and ducks at leisure. After school, I would head out to the woods, tromping around for hours and sometimes shooting innocent sparrows with my .22 (non-automatic). In the book I found spellbinding stories of people; the book reads like he was here, sitting on the couch, telling his stories in person. A
And from downstream well past Glen Rose:
Gentlemen: I have been in bed for the past two days with an awful cold. So, I will not attend the meeting tomorrow. I am upset because I think the book could lead to some good discussion.
Goodbye to a River is a very interesting story of a older man who takes a nostalgic canoe trip on a section of the Brazos River in Texas. The book is full of interesting descriptions of the events on the river, events in Texas history, and discussions the narrator has with interesting local individuals. It's obvious that the author was well read in Texas history. He also had a great vocabulary--I learned many new words from the book.
The book has a major flaw: the author's writing style. The book is full of long sentences that contain clause after clause connected by commas. On many occasions I had to read a sentence or a paragraph 3 or 4 times and sometimes I still did not understand the author's point. In the hands of a better writer this would have been an A book but the writing reduced it to a B+. I would still recommend this book to others.
- Dick
