Mississippi Solo: A River Quest - Softcover

9781558210011: Mississippi Solo: A River Quest
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The author recounts his experiences canoeing down the Mississippi from Minnesota to New Orleans

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Review:
At 30 years old, Eddy Harris leaves his home in St. Louis and sets off into the chilly autumn for Lake Itasca. "I decided to canoe down the Mississippi River and to find out what I was made of," he writes. And Mississippi Solo is his stunning testament. Harris, who has authored Native Stranger, South of Haunted Dreams, and Still Life in Harlem, has been widely acclaimed since the first release of Mississippi Solo in 1988. It is greatly pleasing to see this important and stimulating first work revived.

As the Mississippi grows from its tiny source to a wide and powerful flow, Harris gains confidence as a canoeist, faith in his endeavor, and an understanding of his varying identity as an African American traveling alone from north to south in the United States. His exact and brilliantly revealing prose shows us how each bend in this mighty river turns itself within the paddler, how person and river are entwined--and who is in charge.

With an astute ear for irony, philosophy, and wisdom, as well as truths about the river, Harris takes the reader through locks and lakes on the northern Mississippi to the wild and swift and meandering river south of St. Louis. Songs of joy, troughs of loneliness, terrific storms, birdsong, paranoia, friendly captains, wild dogs, and ghosts of slaves fill his pages. Then we face off with two hunters, two shotguns, and Harris's single pistol... and still the river leads him on to New Orleans. Like the river he travels, Harris cuts through to the core of himself and his country. Triumphant! --Byron Ricks

From the Publisher:
The true account of a young black man's journey in quest of a lifelong dream to canoe the length of the Mississippi River. "I hope Mississippi Solo goes forth to encourage young Americans to . . . have an encounter with something real, as Eddy Harris did with the Mississippi River."--William Least Heat Moon

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  • PublisherNick Lyons Books
  • Publication date1988
  • ISBN 10 1558210016
  • ISBN 13 9781558210011
  • BindingPaperback
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages256
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780805059038: Mississippi Solo: A River Quest

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0805059032 ISBN 13:  9780805059038
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks, 1998
Softcover

  • 9780060972479: Mississippi Solo: A River Quest

    Harper..., 1989
    Softcover

  • 9781558216785: Mississippi Solo: A River Quest

    UNKNO
    Softcover

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Harris, Eddy L.
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Harris, Eddy L.
Published by Nick Lyons Books (1988)
ISBN 10: 1558210016 ISBN 13: 9781558210011
New Paperback Quantity: 1
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