River Horse: Summary and book reviews of River Horse by William Least Heat-Moon, plus links to an excerpt from River Horse and a biography of William Least Heat-Moon.
River Horse A Journey Across America
by William Least Heat-Moon
Hardcover: Oct 1999,
528 pages.
Paperback: Apr 2001,
528 pages.
In River-Horse, the preeminent chronicler of American back roads--who has given us the classics Blue Highways and Prairyerth--recounts his singular voyage on American waters from sea to sea. Along the route, he offers a lyrical and ceaselessly fascinating shipboard perspective on the country's rivers, lakes, canals, and landscapes. Brimming with history, drama, humor, and wisdom, River-Horse belongs in the pantheon of American travel literature.
In his most ambitious journey ever, Heat-Moon sets off aboard a small boat he named Nikawa ("river horse" in Osage) from the Atlantic at New York Harbor in hopes of entering the Pacific near Astoria, Oregon. He and his companion, Pilotis, struggle to cover some five thousand watery miles -- more than any other cross-country river traveler has ever managed -- often following in the wakes of our most famous explorers, from Henry Hudson to Lewis and Clark.
En route, the voyagers confront massive floods, submerged rocks, dangerous weather, and their own doubts about whether they can complete the trip. But the hard days yield up incomparable pleasures: strangers generous with help and eccentric tales, landscapes unchanged since Sacagawea saw them, riverscapes flowing with a lively past, and the growing belief that efforts to protect our lands and waters are beginning to pay off. And, throughout its course, the expedition enjoys coincidences so breathtaking as to suggest the intervention of a divine and witty Providence.
Teeming with humanity and high adventure, Heat-Moon's account is an unsentimental and original arteriogram of our nation at the edge of the millennium. Masterly in its own right, River-Horse, when taken with Blue Highways and PrairyErth, forms the capstone of a peerless and timeless trilogy.
Kirkus Reviews
Writing with an eye for local color and little-examined history (and sneaking in a pages-long sentence worthy of James Joyce in the bargain), Least Heat-Moon turns in a stirring narrative of a journey into landscapes few have seen---an America that "isn't a big country but hundreds of smaller ones." Vintage Least Heat-Moon, radiant with intelligence and masterful storytelling.
Booklist
His journey becomes a living history of the U.S. as the well-read author refers to numerous historical events that took place along his route, quoting at length from other writers and adventurers who preceded him. At more than 500 pages, his epic does seem to run long, but the book is composed of self-containing chapters and can be read selectively. There is a timeless quality to Heat-Moon's stories, all remarkably spellbinding and enchanting. An excellent book.
Publishers Weekly
Heat-Moon has written a rich chronicle of a massive and meaningful undertaking. Unlike Blue Highways, however, the focus is not so much on people and places as on the trials of a journey that bypasses them in favor of reaching its destination.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by Tim Larson
Entertaining and informative, this trial by water gives arm-chair travelers and historians a glimpse of the importance of American rivers. Candid, opionated yet wry, Heat-Moon takes us mile by mile from NYC to the Pacific in his own personal neo... Read More
Rated of 5
by BW
Great book to read when the boating season is over
'Thoroughly enjoyable. No writer has better captured the heroic enigma that was Captain James Cook than Tony Horwitz in this amiable and enthralling excursion around the Pacific.'
Edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey, State by State is a panoramic portrait of America and an appreciation of all fifty states (and Washington, D.C.) by fifty-one of the most acclaimed writers in the nation.
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