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Tax-exempt? Read an interview | Chattooga Descending into the Myth of Deliverance River This is John Lane's search for the real Chattooga--for the truths that reside somewhere in the river's rapids, along its shores, or in its travelers' hearts. Lane balances the dark, indifferent mythical river of Deliverance against the Chattooga known to locals and to the outdoors enthusiasts who first mastered its treacherous vortices and hydraulics. Starting at its headwaters, Lane leads us down the river and through its complex history to its current status as a National Wild and Scenic River. Along the way he stops for talks with conservation activists, seventh-generation residents, locals who played parts in the movie, day visitors, and others. Lane weaves into each encounter an abundance of details drawn from his perceptive readings and viewings of Deliverance and his wide-ranging knowledge of the Chattooga watershed. At the end of his run, Lane leaves us still fully possessed by the Chattooga's mystery, yet better informed about its place in his world and ours. John Lane's writing has been published in American Whitewater, Southern Review, Terra Nova, and Fourth Genre. His books include Waist Deep in Black Water (Georgia), several volumes of poetry, and Weed Time, a gathering of his essays. Lane is an associate professor of English at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. September 2005 ISBN 0820327751 paper • $18.95 224 pp. • 5 1/2 x 9 in. • 1 map"Having previously explored the river, Lane returns to journey the entire length of it, describing its natural beauty and danger as well as pausing to view it through the prism of Dickey's book. . . . Lane artfully applies his poetic sensibility to the river itself . . . Lane's own writing and observations are good enough to stand outside of Dickey's considerable shadow." —George de Man, Atlanta Journal-Constitution"His narrative provides a kayaker's soggy-seated perspective, describing the river's sucking hydraulics and breath-stealing drops. . Lane writes with muscle and insight." —Bruce Henderson, The Charlotte Observer"In this readable meditation, Lane convincingly demonstrates that Dickey's disturbing and powerful vision exists only 'on the shelf and on the screen.' The reality is much more complex." —John Sledge, Mobile Register"While the book skims the surface of Dickey's and Boorman's brutal world, Lane is at his strongest when writing about his own observations of the river and the people who live along its banks. . Despite using Deliverance's cultural hook, readers will discover-through Lane's vivid descriptions, smooth prose and obvious passion for the environment and the Chattooga-that the author has charted a course all his own, one where the wild and scenic river is one of the strongest characters."-Creative Loafing (Charlotte, NC) "At places, Lane's descriptions cause you to pause and take it all in, to eddy out in the reading and savor the flow of memories you have of rivers. If you've ever spent time in a boat without a motor, you'll enjoy reading the coincidence of feelings and shared conversations you've had on the water."-Scooter MacMillan, Columbus Ledger "Lane hikes alongside the Chattooga and kayaks down its waters. He explores the literature of the river and fishing and weaves in the history of the area. . Like all good nature writers, Lane adds his personal history to the natural history and human cultural history of the river."-Danny Bernstein, Rapid River "Throughout this book we meet not only the Chattooga, but we meet as well a man who can write with the force and power of the currents he describes. Lane not only has the descriptive talents to give us the river and the geography of the river, but he also gives us wonderful, short, and accurate descriptions of those whom he meets. Lane has the eye and the knowledge of craft to bring to life a scene in just a sentence or two, to capture a personality in just a few words."-Jeff Minick, Smoky Mountain News "Lane's strength as a writer lies in his poetic descriptions and vivid imagery, which makes this a truly enjoyable read about a beautiful and special place. Whether you've never seen the Chattooga River or you live in its watershed and know it well, you'll enjoy seeing it through John Lane's eyes."-The Chattooga Quarterly "Lane traverses the river to unlock fact from fiction, wending from lyrical descriptions of the storied landscape to accounts of the effect on local residents of the movie-all within the context of Dickey's famous work."-Atlanta Magazine "John Lane's evocative meditation . explores the Chattooga from the viewpoints of both white-water paddler and poet. . Every time he is surprised to find echoes of Dickey's work as he tries to master each tricky intersection of water and rock."-Stuart Ferguson, Wall Street Journal "This book is both a personal pilgrimage and an oral history of one of America's most fascinating waterways."-Appalachian Heritage "In this readable meditation, he convincingly demonstrates that Dickey's disturbing and powerful vision exists only 'on the shelf and on the screen.' The reality is much more complex."-John Sledge, Mobile Register "[Lane's book] is valuable as a naturalist narrative, a series of adventure stories, and a valuable addition to our understanding of James Dickey and the river on the Georgia-South Carolina border that he had such a hand in making famous. . Lane is a highly dependable guide down a stream that has offered both beauty and danger in fiction and reality to thousands of individuals."-William B. Thesing, James Dickey Newsletter "[A] good book from a subtle and gifted writer."-Dr. Rick Matthews, Chattanooga Times Free Press "Lane not only has the descriptive talents to give us the river and the geography of the river, but he also gives us wonderful, short, and accurate descriptions of those whom he meets. Lane has the eye and the knowledge of craft to bring to life a scene in just a sentence or two, to capture a personality in just a few words."-Jeff Minick, Smoky Mountain Review "A native Southerner, Lane loves the leisurely, unfolding front-porch tale. . Yet he has written a very modern book, one that argues that to look at a landscape or an animal in just one or two ways is to diminish it. . [A]n insightful and companionable examination of a book, a movie, and a river that still runs free."-John Calderazzo, Orion "Chattooga: Descending into the Myth of Deliverance River is a highly original blending of landscape description, environmental history, and memoir. John Lane evokes the impact upon a remote, beautiful region and its people that was caused by James Dickey's best-selling novel and the movie based on it. By including himself in the audience for such myth-making, and by integrating accounts of his own kayaking down the Chattooga, Lane creates a stirring tale of adventure as well as a reflection about the impact of mass media on a rural community. The precision and humor of his writing, as well as the many deft characterizations along the way, make his book engrossing from the first page to the last."-John Elder, author of Reading the Mountains of Home"From where I sit, near the headwaters of the Chattooga, where the Dickey novel and the Boorman film are more than controversial, I see the gifted storyteller John Lane's book as a deliverance and a healing, bridging the maelstrom and the mythos of a great river for those who love and respect its wildness, and therein, its wisdom."-Thomas Rain Crowe, author of New Native and Writing the Wind: A Celtic Resurgence "I haven't felt so 'into' a wilderness place since reading Bill Bryson's account of hiking the Appalachian Trail, and I think Lane in this book is a better read even than Bryson. Except for one or two sentences ('I am haunted by waters') in Norman Maclean's wonderful A River Runs Through It, Lane's book is without parallel in giving life and voice to running waters."-Larry McGehee "John Lane has brought us a haunting review, thirty years later, of how Deliverance, the book and film, have affected the river corridor, its surroundings, and the people who live near its banks, and those who come to ride its keen white edges. . . . John Lane treats the landscapes of the Chattooga River as places that exist not only in the mathematics of hydraulics and geomorphology but also in the aqua incognita of our imaginations. His writing is charged, alive, a little threatening, as he guides us down unexplored waters. His accounts of the people, the politics, the rapids, and the changing environments of the Chattooga flicker insistently like a flashbulb afterimage in the mind long after the book is tucked away. If any author has come close to cracking the code to the enigma of why folks are drawn to the black-rocked dangers and the white magic of fast, free-flowing water, it is John Lane."-Richard Bangs, author of The Lost River and founder of Sobek Expeditions "Bring together a genuinely exciting subject-the reality and the myths of the Chattooga River-and a gifted and knowledgeable writer at the peak of his powers, one who knows that subject by heart and bone, and you have the recipe for a book you will want to read (more than once) with pleasure and admiration. Chattooga is that book, and John Lane is the gifted author who earns our attention and our praise."-George P. Garrett, author of Going to See the Elephant "John Lane combines the ecological imperatives with a critic's eye in explaining the overwhelming impact that James Dickey's novel had on the river-both good and bad-and on our ideas about wildness and violence in general. This book is a gem-beautifully conceived and written."-Philip Lee Williams, author of Crossing Wildcat Ridge: A Memoir of Nature and Healing "John Lane's talent as a poet is evident in the lyricism of his prose, and his expertise in whitewater shows in the dynanism and precision of his river descriptions. Lane is also an engaging storyteller who layers narratives of the rich literary, cultural, and environmental history of the Chattooga watershed while allowing us to listen in on his conversations with paddlers, environmentalists, land managers, and local residents (including some who were used as extras in Boorman's film). And Lane is a Southerner, which makes him sensitive to the unique combination of dream and slander that has created the legend of his home river."-Michael P. Branch, ISLE "John Lane's exploration of the Chattooga, its myths, its people and its history rambles like the river itself -sometimes moody, sometimes dark, sometimes swift, always moving. For anyone who likes a narrative of self-questioning, outdoor-exploring prose, Lane's Chattooga is a good choice."-Spartanburg Herald-Journal "[Lane] describes the river with a poet's eye and an experienced paddler's hand . his deft descriptions are often lyrical . I can't imagine anyone's reading Lane's engaging chronicle without getting the urge to strap a kayak onto the car and head for the river"-The State "This is most of all a reverie to the river and to paddling as this amateur enthusiast immerses us in the river's rapids, language, history and preservation."-Chattanooga Times Free Press |
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