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12th out of 391 books
—
210 voters
The River Why
Since its publication by Sierra Club Books nearly two decades ago, The River Why has become a classic, standing with Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It as the most-read fiction about fly-fishing of our era. Duncan's protagonist, Gus Orviston, is an irreverent young flyfisherman, a vibrant character who makes us laugh easily and feel deeply, and who speaks with startl
...morePaperback, 304 pages
Published
December 1st 1984
by Bantam
(first published January 1st 1983)
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David James Duncan is a hero in our home, an integral part of my oldest son's coming of age. In 1991 Aaron was going to turn 16, and I had just finished reading The River Why for the first time. For dozens of reasons I fell in love with the book, and wanted to share the book with Aaron, and avid reader himself.
The paperback copy I had was a later edition, and I sent my copy to the Sierra Club in San Francisco, explaining that I knew they would not share the author's address, could they please s...more
The paperback copy I had was a later edition, and I sent my copy to the Sierra Club in San Francisco, explaining that I knew they would not share the author's address, could they please s...more
Well, this is now my favorite book, bar none. In fact, I liked this book so much I feel half inclined to go back and deduct a star from all of my other 'read' books just so this 5 star one can stand out.
It had aspects of all of my favorite books combined.
Comedy and fantastic writing that is at times beautifully simple, and intellectually dense.
Every character stood out as an incredibly interesting individual, so much so that if the author hadn't of said this was a work of fiction himself I wo...more
It had aspects of all of my favorite books combined.
Comedy and fantastic writing that is at times beautifully simple, and intellectually dense.
Every character stood out as an incredibly interesting individual, so much so that if the author hadn't of said this was a work of fiction himself I wo...more
Some books you just read.
Some books draw you in.
Some books read you-- and in the process lay you out, naked and utterly absorbed in every sensation and feeling as though you were just born.
Welcome to The River Why.
I never thought of fishing and philosophy as a duo. I don't even particularly care that much about fishing (despite having done so with my grandfather when I was a little girl).
But Duncan has created a story so rich in thought and depth, that even the technicalities of fly making, cast...more
Some books draw you in.
Some books read you-- and in the process lay you out, naked and utterly absorbed in every sensation and feeling as though you were just born.
Welcome to The River Why.
I never thought of fishing and philosophy as a duo. I don't even particularly care that much about fishing (despite having done so with my grandfather when I was a little girl).
But Duncan has created a story so rich in thought and depth, that even the technicalities of fly making, cast...more
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"And so I learned what solitude really was. It was raw material- awesome, malleable, older than men or worlds or water. And it was merciless -for it let a man become precisely what he alone made of himself."
First let me say that I am neither religious nor "spiritual". I find books about discovering one's spirituality tiresome. I am solidly in the secular materialist camp. So with that said, let me now say that I loved this book. I loved it despite the moral of the tale, which is that God is (qui...more
First let me say that I am neither religious nor "spiritual". I find books about discovering one's spirituality tiresome. I am solidly in the secular materialist camp. So with that said, let me now say that I loved this book. I loved it despite the moral of the tale, which is that God is (qui...more
This novel tells the story of young fishing prodigy Gus Orviston and his madcap, fishing-obsessed family. After graduating from high school, Gus leaves home so he can be free of distractions and devote himself entirely to fishing. In the process and despite himself, Gus comes to discover the joys of community, romantic love, and eventually, God.
It’s hard for me to express just how much I love this book. One of the biggest reasons why is because it’s laugh-out-loud hysterical. There are just not...more
It’s hard for me to express just how much I love this book. One of the biggest reasons why is because it’s laugh-out-loud hysterical. There are just not...more
Jun 10, 2007
Sabrina
added it
I am two parts surprised to one part in love with this book. There's no denying that it is a coming of age story about a quiet analyical fisherman who finds his own peace and place in the world by developing his own agnostic religion. And boy does he fish a lot! Boor--ring. So what compelled me to tear through this novel at my desk, and cramped on a kitchen table, and sneak peeks on the bus? The narrator is a doll. I've never met a person like him yet major aspects of his character run through s...more
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David James Duncan could transcribe the phone book, and I'd read it.
From The River Why:
Across the road from my cabin was a huge clear-cut--hundreds of acres of massive spruce stumps interspersed with tiny Douglas firs--products of what they call "Reforestation," which I guess makes the spindly firs en masse a "Reforest," which makes an individual spindly fir a "Refir," which means you could say that Weyerhauser, who owns the joint, has Refir Madness, since they think that sawing down 200-foot-ta...more
From The River Why:
Across the road from my cabin was a huge clear-cut--hundreds of acres of massive spruce stumps interspersed with tiny Douglas firs--products of what they call "Reforestation," which I guess makes the spindly firs en masse a "Reforest," which makes an individual spindly fir a "Refir," which means you could say that Weyerhauser, who owns the joint, has Refir Madness, since they think that sawing down 200-foot-ta...more
Jun 05, 2011
Annarosepenny
added it
Book club book: Originally Gus Orviston is supposed to write about the modern American family, and it's heavy. But the light, comical fishing episodes sort of take over. Gus leaves his fly-fishing dad, country-bumpkin Ma, and little brother with dreefrees, behind in their Portland suburb. He lives in a cabin in the woods, so that he can be alone and just - fish. But ... the water and solitude after awhile get to him, as well as a dead body that he encounters in the fog, so he turns to neighbors....more
I have never been that interested in fishing, and this book makes me want to fish! It's so clever...funny, (the opening paragraph had me laughing) and enlightening. Gus, the main character grows up fishing, in this crazy, fishing-obsessed, little family, and then he strikes out on his own, comes to know himself and what's really, most important to him.
Towards the end of the book, I read this passage, and then re-read it and re-read at least ten times...
"Dawn came up behind the hills, extending...more
Towards the end of the book, I read this passage, and then re-read it and re-read at least ten times...
"Dawn came up behind the hills, extending...more
God (or religion, spirituality, the One, etc) can be found anywhere and should be a product of your own idiosyncratic life experiences. Gus, the narrator/fisher hero of The River Why, finds his God among the river. The line of light. Prying himself away from toxic relationship with his family, Gus endeavors an "ideal" life along the river Why somewhere near Oregon. Through isolation from others and a total fixation on his singular passion, fishing, Gus pursues his notion of the perfect life, but...more
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I read this over 25 years ago, and it's still a favorite of mine - a coming of age story about falling in love, finding faith and fishing (lots and lots of fishing).
The main character, Gus, grows up with fishing obsessed parents - but they are very different people: one a stuffy angler, who named his son "Augustus" and the other a bait fisherwoman with very earthy tastes, and both who use Izaak Walton's "The Compleat Angler" as a Bible (though one they don't understand). Gus grows up as a bette...more
The main character, Gus, grows up with fishing obsessed parents - but they are very different people: one a stuffy angler, who named his son "Augustus" and the other a bait fisherwoman with very earthy tastes, and both who use Izaak Walton's "The Compleat Angler" as a Bible (though one they don't understand). Gus grows up as a bette...more
I know beans about fly-fishing, and as a kid I grew to hate fishing because of early morning forays with my father and one of his brothers wherein I worked at cutting bait, cleaning fish, and other cold, unpleasant tasks. This is a great novel even though it looks like it's about fishing. It's a love story, a story of the struggle with God, and a conservationist story. Read it, read it, read it!
This is the first book I ever read by David James Duncan. He has since become my favorite author. I have now read almost every word he has published anywhere. This is where I would recommend others to start reading him too.
This book has a little of everything for me. It tells the story of a philosophically curious young fisherman's coming of age. He walks us through all of his rebellions and all of his reconciliations with a wry wit and a compassion for each side of every circumstance along the...more
This book has a little of everything for me. It tells the story of a philosophically curious young fisherman's coming of age. He walks us through all of his rebellions and all of his reconciliations with a wry wit and a compassion for each side of every circumstance along the...more
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I started this book six months before actually finishing it. I had just arrived in Romania, and maybe I wasn't in the right frame of mind to read it -- I got bored and distracted halfway through, and dropped it until six months later. I'm glad I picked it back up, maybe because a lot of Gus's (the main character's) thoughts and experiences resonated with my own at the time I read this book -- particularly his loneliness and spiritual confusion. It's an intricate and complex book with all of its...more
This book has it all... nature, good storytelling, love, a little spirituality. Gus Orviston is the son of a bait-fishing mother and fly-fishing father, and sets off on his own to fish (bait and fly) the river by himself and live in a cabin as a hermit. He figures out that he needs a tribe to live after he finds a dead guy in the river, and befriends the neighbors-- hippies, farmers, a philosopher. The book touches on some modern environmental issues-- dams, nonpoint source pollution, urbanizati...more
I tried really hard to love this book, but couldn't. I kept hoping it would grab me. Generally I find books whose authors respect and revere the natural world, who write knowledgeably and often beautifully about it, and whose characters struggle with existential questions to be immensely satisfying and engaging, so I think I understand why others count this as a 5 star favorite. My reaction was much the same as the editors who rejected it and who Duncan described in the Afterward he wrote for th...more
This is the only book I have read by David James Duncan and read it because it was a book group book. There were some parts that I loved and was laughing out loud and then other parts of the book that my mind wandered a lot. I felt like the book consisted of many short stories that involved the main character and his different interactions with many different people in his life. I loved these parts of the book. The part of the book that I felt was hard to follow was stuck around those great sect...more
When I read this for the first time eleven years ago, I was in love with every sentence. It's the kind of book that begs to be copied passage-by-passage into one's journal. I returned to it recently out of curiosity and a certain homesickness; I wanted to see what about it still resonated with me. My conclusion: I was less enamored with the novel this time around. But, perhaps, The River Why does what I think a truly great book should: it marks a particular time in my life when its content was t...more
Brilliant book. I've read this so many times, and recommended/bought copies for so many friends, I've lost count. A deeply moving, hysterically funny, perceptive, spiritual story of one man figuring out the "why" of it all.
Sep 24, 2010
Mike
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Your inner nineteen-year-old
Recommended to Mike by:
My parents
Shelves:
favorites
I started August 27—the day I bought my new favorite book for a dollar—with some anxious-making personal assistant work followed by enjoyable, effortless quality time with a pseudo-ex who also offered me casting referrals over lunch. My appointments fufilled, I walked uptown from Union Square and sat in Madison Square Park to write. It was one of those wonderful, optimistic days when the shade is just right, and somehow the smells of a park on Manhattan—chlorophyll, pigeons, exhaust, cooking con...more
This book was a little slow going for me at first. It was as witty and clever as Duncan's other writing, but it's just so focused on fishing, and I've never been much of a fisherwoman. But suddenly it's taken a turn toward brilliance, as Gus the Fisherman has become enamored by an elusive fishergirl named Eddy and is now under the tutelage of his friend Titus in an attempt to understand his soul. Or his soul-pole, as he calls it. If I could type the entirety of the last two chapters here without...more
This is an impressive piece of writing and David James Duncan does not disappoint especially after reading his other novel, The Brothers K, which may be my favorite book of all time. This is the story of a boy's learning what is important in life through the metaphor of fishing. At times hilarious, at others provocative, you have so many amazing characters to choose from. Scenes of mom and dad bickering or of a turd pie eating contest go down as some of the funniest I have ever read. Couple that...more
A split personality: fishing novel and religious tract. The fishing stories are funny, the coming-of-age plot affirming, and the major characters entertaining and likable; I suspect these will be the focus of the upcoming movie with William Hurt. The theme of spiritual awakening is thought provoking, though probably harder to translate to the big screen. As philosophy the book is OK but occasionally irritating, when Duncan makes a few ham-handed attempts to put science down as he forces his char...more
I am abandoning this book for the time being because i can't fathom any more fishing terminology.
Of the 150 pages i've read,i can't help but feel dissatisfied considering the reviews on the basis of which i bought the book.makes me feel most reviewers must be teenagers or adolescents.
there are very few books i loathe(a confederacy of dunces),and fortunately this is not one of em'.It's just not to my taste.
although,i plan to return to it after i am finished with 5 other half read books i got in t...more
Of the 150 pages i've read,i can't help but feel dissatisfied considering the reviews on the basis of which i bought the book.makes me feel most reviewers must be teenagers or adolescents.
there are very few books i loathe(a confederacy of dunces),and fortunately this is not one of em'.It's just not to my taste.
although,i plan to return to it after i am finished with 5 other half read books i got in t...more
2 likes · like · see review
Nov 22, 2008
Timothy
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone
Recommended to Timothy by:
Tristan Scott
Philosophy and fly fishing. Not necessarily two separate things. Duncan's writing is reminiscent of John Kennedy Toole's Confederacy of Dunces, and the characters are just as fascinating. Having grown up spending time on Oregon's coastal rivers, I connected with the place in this book as much as with the characters. Though I'm still digesting the profound questions and answers in this book, I've rarely been so completely satisfied by a read before. Few books, other than Chesterton's Father Brown...more
Unequivocally my favorite book.
The River Why incorporates everything I could ever want in a book- it's hilarious, its spiritual, it involves fishing, and it's (again) hilarious.
The book is a fictional autobiography about a man who leaves his nutty family to discover himself as a sort of recluse-fisherman. He makes great friendships along the way, and eventually comes to appreciate his part in the bigger picture. It's a great book, nearly impossible to categorize, but trust me when I say that t...more
The River Why incorporates everything I could ever want in a book- it's hilarious, its spiritual, it involves fishing, and it's (again) hilarious.
The book is a fictional autobiography about a man who leaves his nutty family to discover himself as a sort of recluse-fisherman. He makes great friendships along the way, and eventually comes to appreciate his part in the bigger picture. It's a great book, nearly impossible to categorize, but trust me when I say that t...more
This book tells the story of a young man named Gus Orviston, who is raised by two fishing obsessed parents and whose life is totally focused on fishing. Gus begins a journey of growth and discovery while living in Oregon, on a river he calls the River Why.
It took a while for fishing, philosophy and spirituality to come together for me, but once they did I was hooked. The combination is a natural, as it says on pg. 179, “Fishermen should be the easiest of men to convince to commence the search fo...more
It took a while for fishing, philosophy and spirituality to come together for me, but once they did I was hooked. The combination is a natural, as it says on pg. 179, “Fishermen should be the easiest of men to convince to commence the search fo...more
This is one of my favorite books. Duncan is an incredible writer who is attentive to the analogies offered in nature, streams, and the art of fishing and uses them in his vibrant prose. Reading this book whips one back and forth from mirth to meaning and does it with art and wit. Some may find his vocabulary or allusions exhausting; those people should thank Duncan for giving them reasons to befriend a dictionary or other great books. It's a very fun book with some very profound insights and I'm...more
Beautiful "heart may burst" ending, and often very funny. But I read this after reading The Brothers K, which put it at a disadvantage for me considering the latter became my Favorite Book of All Time.
I think this novel also has what I call Confederacy of Dunces syndrome: one's gender significantly impacts one's identification with and enjoyment of it. Maybe the best example of this is when he first sees Eddy. The description, his actions, etc. are hilarious and touching and we've all experienc...more
I think this novel also has what I call Confederacy of Dunces syndrome: one's gender significantly impacts one's identification with and enjoyment of it. Maybe the best example of this is when he first sees Eddy. The description, his actions, etc. are hilarious and touching and we've all experienc...more
1 like · like · see review
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| The novel vs. the movie | 1 | 16 | Dec 08, 2011 02:29pm |
David James Duncan (born 1952) is an American novelist and essayist, best known for his two bestselling novels, The River Why (1983) and The Brothers K (1992). Both involve fly fishing, baseball, and family.
Both received the Pacific Northwest Booksellers award; The Brothers K was a New York Times Notable Book in 1992 and won a Best Books Award from the American Library Association.
Film adaptation
I...more
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Both received the Pacific Northwest Booksellers award; The Brothers K was a New York Times Notable Book in 1992 and won a Best Books Award from the American Library Association.
Film adaptation
I...more
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“When people are kids their parents teach them all sorts of stuff, some of it true and useful, some of it absurd hogwash (example of former: don't crap your pants; example of latter: Columbus discovered America). This is why puberty happens. The purpose of puberty is to shoot an innocent and gullible child full of nasty glandular secretions that manifest in the mind as confusion, in the innards as horniness, upon the skin as pimples, and on the tongue as cocksure venomous disbelief in every piece of information, true or false, gleaned from one's parents since infancy. The net result is a few years of familial hell culminating in the child's exodus from the parental nest, sooner or later followed by a peace treaty and the emergence of the postpubescent as an autonomous, free-thinking human being who knows that Columbus only trespassed on an island inhabited by our lost and distant Indian relatives, but who also knows not to crap his pants.”
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16 people liked it
“At last the cold crept up my spine; at last it filled me from foot to head; at last I grew so chill and desolate that all thought and pain and awareness came to a standstill. I wasn't miserable anymore: I wasn't anything at all. I was a nothing-- a random configuration of molecules. If my heart still beat I didn't know it. I was aware of one thing only; next to the gaping fact called Death, all I knew was nothing, all I did meant nothing, all I felt conveyed nothing. This was no passing thought. It was a gnawing, palpable emptiness more real than the cold.”
—
12 people liked it
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