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The Run to Gitche Gumee
An outrageous outdoor adventure heightened by ribald humor, violence, sex, pitch-perfect dialogue, unforgettably eccentric characters, and a riveting plot.
- GenresFiction
275 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2001
About the author
Robert F. Jones
46 books13 followersLibrarian Note: There are more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 9, 2009
This book was part II in the saga of my attempting to read narratives
about canoeing while I work on saving up enough for my own canoe.
This installment didn't really teach me too much about canoeing, but
it did give me a serious hankering to go fishing and hunting. The
previous episode in said saga was of course the ill fated Deep
Water Passage. The good news is that Gitche Gumee surpases
Passage in literally every single sense imagineable. The bad
news is that it is both styllistically and thematically a mess, albeit
a well meaning one. Had it included only the passages about fishing
and hunting, it would have been an extremely enjoyable read. Instead
it spends its time attempting to mythologize larger than life
characters that really aren't all that interesting and playing chicken
(and losing) with making deep psychological observations about men of
the immediately pre-boomer generation.
The book is devided into three parts: two large main parts split by a
brief interlude. The middle part is a fairly realistic, moderately
poignant, story of life in the marines during the Korean War. The
main parts are both, presumably, supposed to be
psychologically-insightful-yet-comedic looks into the lives of two
men, first at the end of their youth, and then towards the end of it
all. Unfortunately, the book strays a little too far into what I like
to call the uncanny valley of fiction: you can stray as far from
reality as you want, but once you get a certain distance beyond
believability, you need to start putting up signposts to acknowledge
it. These can be fusion powered lasers, conversations with dead
relatives, or rabbits with stop watches. What matters is that they
clearly indicate to the reader that the rules have been left behind,
and that you are now free to move about the cabin. Unfortunately, the
closest that Gitche Gumee ever gets to such things is the
inclusion of a mythically over-sized brown trout in the first 50
pages.
Both of the two big chunks suffer seriously from this fault. Both
spend most of their time setting up cartoonishly violent-yet-harmless
encounters with sadly unthreatening villains. Intersperesed, sort of
oddly, with the bigger elements of the two plots is a vast buffet of
filler bits: awkwardly vulgar-yet-non-nondescript sex, flashes forward
and backward to the Korean War, half hearted attempts to find meaning
in death and divorce, and some truly fantastic sports writing. The
psychology is probably the most distracting and irritating part of the
book. Jones seems fine acknowledging the fact that materialism leads
to empty lives; and that refusing to cope with the psychological
scars of war will leave you an alcoholic whose family won't talk to
them. What he utterly fails to do though, is examine the actual
meaning of these things, or what causes them, or what to do about
them.
The one thing that the book does do supremely well, is talk about
fishing and bird hunting in a way that makes it sound fantastically
romantic and appealing. Never have I wanted to learn fly fishing more,
or had a more urgent need to buy a fowling shotgun, than I did in the
middle of this book. Its a short enough read, that I suppose I would recommend the book to anyone who cares about fishing based solely on these passages, but I would also heartily recommend skipping all the boring river chases, gunfights and psychological navel gazing.
about canoeing while I work on saving up enough for my own canoe.
This installment didn't really teach me too much about canoeing, but
it did give me a serious hankering to go fishing and hunting. The
previous episode in said saga was of course the ill fated Deep
Water Passage. The good news is that Gitche Gumee surpases
Passage in literally every single sense imagineable. The bad
news is that it is both styllistically and thematically a mess, albeit
a well meaning one. Had it included only the passages about fishing
and hunting, it would have been an extremely enjoyable read. Instead
it spends its time attempting to mythologize larger than life
characters that really aren't all that interesting and playing chicken
(and losing) with making deep psychological observations about men of
the immediately pre-boomer generation.
The book is devided into three parts: two large main parts split by a
brief interlude. The middle part is a fairly realistic, moderately
poignant, story of life in the marines during the Korean War. The
main parts are both, presumably, supposed to be
psychologically-insightful-yet-comedic looks into the lives of two
men, first at the end of their youth, and then towards the end of it
all. Unfortunately, the book strays a little too far into what I like
to call the uncanny valley of fiction: you can stray as far from
reality as you want, but once you get a certain distance beyond
believability, you need to start putting up signposts to acknowledge
it. These can be fusion powered lasers, conversations with dead
relatives, or rabbits with stop watches. What matters is that they
clearly indicate to the reader that the rules have been left behind,
and that you are now free to move about the cabin. Unfortunately, the
closest that Gitche Gumee ever gets to such things is the
inclusion of a mythically over-sized brown trout in the first 50
pages.
Both of the two big chunks suffer seriously from this fault. Both
spend most of their time setting up cartoonishly violent-yet-harmless
encounters with sadly unthreatening villains. Intersperesed, sort of
oddly, with the bigger elements of the two plots is a vast buffet of
filler bits: awkwardly vulgar-yet-non-nondescript sex, flashes forward
and backward to the Korean War, half hearted attempts to find meaning
in death and divorce, and some truly fantastic sports writing. The
psychology is probably the most distracting and irritating part of the
book. Jones seems fine acknowledging the fact that materialism leads
to empty lives; and that refusing to cope with the psychological
scars of war will leave you an alcoholic whose family won't talk to
them. What he utterly fails to do though, is examine the actual
meaning of these things, or what causes them, or what to do about
them.
The one thing that the book does do supremely well, is talk about
fishing and bird hunting in a way that makes it sound fantastically
romantic and appealing. Never have I wanted to learn fly fishing more,
or had a more urgent need to buy a fowling shotgun, than I did in the
middle of this book. Its a short enough read, that I suppose I would recommend the book to anyone who cares about fishing based solely on these passages, but I would also heartily recommend skipping all the boring river chases, gunfights and psychological navel gazing.
November 9, 2021
This is a really entertaining novel that spans nearly the lifetime of the characters involving fly fishing, game bird hunting, encountering and surviving horrific war time service and a nearly end of life return to an earlier adventure to Lake Superior.
The novel ends with much that needs to be concluded so I wonder if there is to be a sequel?
The novel ends with much that needs to be concluded so I wonder if there is to be a sequel?
August 27, 2022
Although a bit chaotic even as there is distinctly a section that focuses more on the reflections of a trip by one of two young men, then a central short section that wasn't entirely needed, and a 3rd section that focuses more on the reflection of the 2nd man of a return trip. But, the writing of natural wild exploration of youth and aged was well-done and to be enjoyed I think.
August 24, 2023
***Review of the audiobook***
This is a dreamy, thoughtful, and meditative story. It is told from many different points of view about two friends, coming of age, and how their lives turned out versus what they expected what happened to them. The narrator is excellent. Listening to this made me yearn for the carefree summers of my own childhood.
This is a dreamy, thoughtful, and meditative story. It is told from many different points of view about two friends, coming of age, and how their lives turned out versus what they expected what happened to them. The narrator is excellent. Listening to this made me yearn for the carefree summers of my own childhood.
March 2, 2022
Read this maybe 15 years ago and liked it. Barely got past 50 pages this time. Got tired of hearing about sardine and peanut butter sandwiches at least a dozen times in 50 pages. Can't quite believe you can see fish swimming in 10 feet of water at night? They know a bear is going to come and wreck their camp, so they leave, and let the bear come and destroy the camp? The canoe is overloaded from the beginning, but there is still room for an overweight woman and a bunch more stuff on their first escape from the robbers? The story is just outside the line of believability to begin with and keeps getting farther fetched. I just don't have the patience for this kind of writing anymore.
October 14, 2009
Takes place in Wisconsin! Two older men take one last paddle trip down a river in Wisconsin, and run into all sorts of crazy trouble along the way. Kind of like T.C. Boyle or Carl Hiassen. Loved it!
October 12, 2014
Loved this book. Didn't think I would but it is a fantastic story.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews