| Goodbye to a river: A narrative |  | Author: John Graves
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Category: Book
This item is no longer available
Avg. Customer Rating:  21 reviews
Pages: 301
ASIN: B0006WEQCA
Publication Date: 1974
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Product Description
In the 1950s, a series of dams was proposed along the Brazos River in north-central Texas. For John Graves, this project meant that if the stream’s regimen was thus changed, the beautiful and sometimes brutal surrounding countryside would also change, as would the lives of the people whose rugged ancestors had eked out an existence there. Graves therefore decided to visit that stretch of the river, which he had known intimately as a youth.
Goodbye to a River is his account of that farewell canoe voyage. As he braves rapids and fatigue and the fickle autumn weather, he muses upon old blood feuds of the region and violent skirmishes with native tribes, and retells wild stories of courage and cowardice and deceit that shaped both the river’s people and the land during frontier times and later. Nearly half a century after its initial publication, Goodbye to a River is a true American classic, a vivid narrative about an exciting journey and a powerful tribute to a vanishing way of life and its ever-changing natural environment.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
 What is lost is not just another river December 19, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I lived in Texas for 8 years and have seen the Brazos and the alligators and armadillos on its banks (although the Brazos that I saw was the section close to its mouth to the gulf and not the part that's described in this book). I have left Texas for a while now. On a recent trip back to Austin, I picked up this book in a local bookstore and I am glad I did.
In this book Graves blends travelogue, history, folklore and personal reflections in a highly readable account. It is personal, anecdotal, sentimental, but not overly melancholy. The language is relaxed, yet well crafted, it gives you the feel of an intimate dialog, but the author also has tight control over what he chooses to say instead of rambling to endless tedium. The conversations, though few, carry the authentic flavor of western Texas, and as other reviewers alluded to, remind one of Steinbeck's writing. In a sense Graves was the last link to that frontier era -- although he was too late himself for the bygone days, he looked backward into those days, and personally talked to people who were its last ruminants. Even this book was written nearly 50 years ago now. Today we can get some glimpses of replicas and trinkets from museums, souvenir shops and Hollywood movies, but to get a real feel, one has to resort to books like this one. What is lost is not just another river.
(A side note: if you like river rafting stories, you may want to check out Colin Fletcher's River)
Steinbeckian reflections on a Texas few still know October 23, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is one of my favorite books. I went to YMCA and Scout camp in the Palo Pinto country. Back then, the divide that exists today between the so-called "cultural elite" and rural Texas didn't exist (or at least both sides respected each other enough to be civil, as a funny episode from the book relates), and Graves lived in both worlds. His is a lost generation, and although only one or two of the dams along his route got built, the country is now part of the vast exurb of Dallas-Fort Worth, filled with rural retreats for the city folk, 5 acre ranchettes, and driveways lined with 40-thousand-dollar pickup trucks. Graves doesn't mourn its loss, but commemorates what seemed like "progress" in the 60s and has only accelerated thousandfold since. If you pass through that country, or want to know what rural Texas used to be like, read this book. It's a bit long in the telling, but if you trace the journey on a map, it was no small trip.
Unique look at a specific area and history of the Lone Star State October 10, 2005
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I was very impressed with this book. Graves does so much in this enjoyable volume. As he takes a canoe trip down the Brazos near where he grew up, he shares the history of the land--both recent and not-so-recent. Through him, we learn the reality of life for the average settler on the edge of the frontier. He also seems to be detailing a life that in his time was declining and in our age is nearly completely gone. His writing is difficult to describe and unlike anything I have ever read. It flows smoothly with a combination of regional speech and erudition. As you read you feel like you are in the canoe with an incomparable guide to this region of our state. A great book that deserves to be read much more widely than it is.
Goodbye to a River--Hello to the Past July 28, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
As a native Texan, I grew up with the stories of the wild frontier and I'm sure that Graves did too. But he takes those stories and, with beautiful prose, shows the really hardscrabble life that folks overcame on the edge of the frontier. Not the stories of Texas Rangers, but of ordinary pioneers who made a life for themselves despite drought, snowstorms and other natural disasters. But the book is also a wonderful "painting" of a part of Texas that is rich in history and natural beauty. A must-read for anyone who wants to know what Texas was like before the arrival of air conditioning and the discovery of oil.
As Good as Walden June 16, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Not since I read "Walden" has a book so moved me. If you ever loved a river, or a piece of land, or ever felt at home in the presence of Nature, then you will delight in this book. But if you are a Texan, then heaven help you, this book is nothing less than magic.
As another reviewer suggested, Mr. Graves should be considered a National Treasure, or nothing less than a Texas Treasure.
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