River-Horse: Across America by Boat

In both the journey and the writing of River Horse William Least Heat Moon (WLHM) makes what at first seem like unfortunate choices but which are perhaps revealing choices. For the journey, WLHM decides to make his trip by river across America in a single summer season. He decides, in essence, to make the trip a race against the clock or, in this case, a race to get to the Rockies before the snowmelt is gone and the rivers are too low. WLHM does this simply so that he will be the first to accomplish the trip in a single season whereas others have made or are making the trip over several years. His quest to set a record therefore makes his trip a dash across America.

I look to WLHM not for accounts of high adventure but rather for his wonderful portraits of the land and even more the people he meets in his travels. Unfortunately, when you race the clock (and melting snow) your meetings with others are few and usually rushed. As a result the focus of River Horse is less on the people he meets than on himself.

This focus on himself is reinforced by a second curios but revealing choice he made. In writing River Horse WLHM had inestimable help from many people and in particular seven individuals who served as "copilots." While he gives their names in a forward note, throughout the book he refers to them by the generic term "Pilotis." As a result these people who spent weeks and months at his side never emerge as individuals. They are just "Pilotis" who appear to speak with one voice, have one character, and one function. Like the dash across America, this rhetorical device also increases the focus on WLHM while moving even those who are closest to him into a generic background.

Finally there is the language of River Horse. In both Blue Highways and PrairyErth WLHM writes with a wonderfully evocative simplicity. His language and turns of phrase highlight that which he describes and makes them memorable. In River Horse I found instead the world's largest collection of words I had never seen before -- and I love words. As with the choice to race the seasons and make important individuals into a collective lump, the writing style also says "look at me, look at how clever and knowledgeable I am, look at me.

Do these choices all indicate that well-deserved success spoiled one of America's great writers? Has WLHM turned from a keen observer of others to a narcissistic observer of himself? Or are these just unfortunate choices? Whatever your verdict, the choices make River Horse a dog.

I liked this book. I try to read what he writes but still like Blue Highways the best. This also was a gift

Least Heat Moon writes of life experiences on America's rivers like no other author with the exception of perhaps Mark Twain .. I would recommend this "Title" to all those who enjoy a great read with a beginning to denouement that is packed full of adventure of historical import.

I first came across William Least Heat Moon in 1985 when I read Blue Highways shortly after moving to a house not far from Shakertown in Kentucky. His story captured my imagination then and I have crossed his trail on many occasions since. Most recently, I read River Horse as a part of my exploration of the Missouri River, down which I will soon be kayaking. While the entirety of the trip from Coast to Coast by water is well described, the description seems to fade in the last pages as if the act of writing was becoming as wearying as the journey itself. However, this is a book that deserves a place on every waterman's shelves, and one which I will turn to again and again.

Moon takes a 5,000 mile journey by a small 22 ft. boat he put in at the Hudson River in New York. He travels the inland rivers he mapped from travelogues of past river travelers. The many rivers Moon travels are amazing to read about knowing that these rivers were traveled and uncharted until Lewis and Clark and other trappers went west. The travel by Moon and his small crew details the geography and rivers which make it possible to end up at the Pacific Ocean. Good read for people interested in someone traveling the rivers' routes from Atlantic to Pacific in the 21st Century!

I have been a fan of William Least Heat-Moon for more than 30 years, ever since a mutual friend taught with him back in the 1970s. So it was with anticipation that I picked up River-Horse. I found it richly rewarding, enough so that I have read it three times over the past nine years. Not everyone will be as enamored of it as I am. Where Blue Highways and PrairyErth have an almost elegiac quality, River-Horse is driven by an agenda, that of navigating America east to west by water in a single season. As such, it is sometimes hurried and abrupt, bereft of time and the opportunity to smell the roses. But it is also a celebration of a quest and its accomplishment, of setting out to fulfill a goal and doing whatever it takes to see it through to its completion. Perhaps Heat-Moon was not such pleasant company while he was on the trip, but I can identify with his mission and his determination. That he succeeded was his own reward, and the book mirrors that single-minded quality and rewards those who stay with him from the mouth of the Hudson to that of the Columbia. America was built by people like him, and for that I have great respect. And besides, I think it's a very good read.

Its a vicarious adventure to explore the rivers of North America by reading about William Least-Heat Moon's journey.