Description
David James Duncan award-winning author of The River Why braids his contemplative activist & rhapsodic voices together into a potently distinctive whole speaking with power & urgency about the vital connections between our water-filled bodies & this water-covered planet. 4 B&W photos; 6×9 inches 304 pgs. In this remarkable collection of essays David James Duncan award-winning author of The River Why braids his contemplative activist and rhapsodic voices together into a potently distinctive whole speaking with power and urgency about the vital connections between our water-filled bodies and this water-covered planet.Confessions Druidic rants reflections bird-watchings fish-stalkings visions songs and prayers refracting light from living rivers in the age of the industrial dark.The twenty-two essays in this collection swirl and eddy around the authors early-forged bond with the rivers of the Pacific Northwest and their endangered native salmon. With a bracing blend of story logic science and humor Duncan relates mystical life-changing fishing adventures; draws incisive portraits of the humans and wild creatures who shaped his destiny; attacks the corporate greed and political folly that have brought whole ecosystems to ruin; and meditates on the spiritual and practical necessity of acknowledging our dependence on water in its primal state.The Sierra Club is proud to announce that My Story As Told By Water has been nominated as a 2001 finalist in the Nonfiction category for the prestigious National Book Awards. Read the Sierra Clubs news release on this topic (November 5 2001).WHAT THE EXPERTS ARE SAYING:Theres an engaging coherence to Duncans 22 angry heartbroken yet hopeful and often quite comic nature essays. Sounding a clarion call to conservation activism Duncan eloquently explains why clean free running water matters: just as we die without good water so does the earth. Yet his unabashed polemic is nicely cushioned by rhapsody; hes the ranter as poet.–Publishers WeeklyRefreshing as a glass of cold water on a scorching day. Duncan invites includes intrigues and inculcates his readers so that they will never think of the Pacific Northwest salmon Montana or Nevada gold mines as they did before.–Library JournalThis book is the Desert Solitaire of water. –Jim HarrisonOriginal skillful and funny as hell. –Ian FrazierMy Story as told by Water is the real McCoy vivid and important full of urgent news about living on earth.–Thomas McGuaneCONTENTS:WONDER VERSUS LOSS1. Valmikis Palm2. Birdwatching as a Blood Sport3. The Non Sense of Place4. Tilt5. Who Owns the West?: Seven Wrong Answers6. Six Henry StoriesACTIVISM7. Native8. Lake of the Stone Mother9. The War for Normans River10. The 1872 Knee-Mining Act & Your Exciting Financial Future!11. Beauty/Violence/Grief/Frenzy/Love: On the Contemplative Versus the Activist Life12. A Prayer for the Salmons Second Coming13. River Soldiers14. Strategic WithdrawalFISHING THE INSIDE PASSAGE15. Idiot Joy16. In Praise of No Guide17. Estuary from an Afterlife18. Fearless Leader19. Khawaja Khadir20. god21. Spirit-Fried No-Name River Brown Trout: A RecipeAppendix: The Lives of Tuan Mac CairillAbout the PhotographsAcknowledgementsAWARDS:Western States AwardNational Book Award Finalist 2001ABOUT THE AUTHOR:David James Duncan author of The River Why has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes and has won a Montana Arts Council Award. He lives in Montana. Softcover
