Goodbye to a River, John Graves
Goodbye to a River, John Graves
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Goodbye to a River
A Narrative

Author: John Graves

Narrator: Henry Strozier

Unabridged: 10 hr 28 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 02/21/2008

Synopsis

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.

“Graves’ originality and flair turn this local scene and regional lore into an honest and powerfully evocative picture of frontier life anywhere.”—Chicago Sunday Tribune

Reviews

Goodreads review by Linda

Where do I start? The author grew up in Fort Worth, as did I, and knew this stretch of the Brazos, as did I, though his knowledge is much more intimate; I never, in my memory, set foot in the river. My paternal grandparents and a couple of my father's siblings lived in Granbury, as do some of my cou......more

Goodreads review by Matthew

To this day, the Brazos is unpredictable, mesmerizing, frustrating and beautiful. It is this work by John Graves that once saved the Brazos from being dammed into nonexistence. In Waco, one sees the hoboes that still fish down by the riverwalk, and the fireworks on the 4th of July reflecting in its w......more

Goodreads review by Jen

I'd give it 3 1/2 stars if it allowed me to. His prose about the Texas landscape is beautiful, and I enjoyed the many stories he collected from the people he encountered along his journey. The book paces slowly, and perhaps rightfully so to expound on how a journey like that causes one to slow down......more

Goodreads review by Jamie

This book has been sitting on my shelf for 15 years, unread. For reasons that escape me, I thought it would be boring and poorly written. And perhaps, at the time I bought it, that would have been true. I attended and worked at the Worth Ranch Boy Scout camp (mentioned in one 2 sentence segment in t......more

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