? Yes.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
"The question that obsesses me at this moment of mortal peril is perverse in the extreme, and one that goes against all the strictures and nostrums of our time. I feel silly even thinking such a question, for it is evidently only the product of a greatly distressed mind, but I must put it into words.
"Is there life after youth?"
Richard Flanagan
Death of a River Guide
2 comments:
Do you think this would be a good book for my dad (he was a raft guide)? He normally reads mysteries and thrillers with some nature/outdoor themed non-fiction thrown in.
I'm always looking for gift books. :)
Well, Miss Em, that's a good question. Flanagan himself was a raft guide, and the book reeks with perfect, lush, impossible to know unless you've been there details. It also ricochets all across time, and sometimes into places that dull rather than quicken the narrative. And it's sad book, the story of a life not well lived, a life that can't be rescued.
But I found passages of it truly thrilling as writing, and I found all the risk taking to be exquisite.
A deeply literary book, thoroughly immersed in rafting.
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