River: One Man's Journey Down the Colorado, Source to Sea (Vintage Departures)

at Age Sixty-seven, Colin Fletcher, The Guru Of Backpacking In America, Undertook A Rigorous Six-month Raft Expedition Down The Full Length Of The Colorado River—alone. He Needed "something To Pare The Fat Off My Soul...to Make Me Grateful, Again, For Being Alive." The 1,700 Miles Between The Colorado's Source In Wyoming And Its Conclusion At Mexico's Gulf Of California Contain Some Of The Most Spectacular Vistas On Earth, And Fletcher Is The Ideal Guide For The Terrain. As His Privileged Companions, We Travel To Places Like Disaster Falls And Desolation Canyon, Observe Beaver And Elk, Experience Sandstorms And Whitewater Rapids, And Share Fletcher's Thoughts On The Human Race, The Environment, And The Joys Of Solitude. publishers Weekly an Incredible Journey Does Not Necessarily Translate Into An Incredible Read, As Fletcher's New Book Illustrates. The Respected 74-year-old Author (the Thousand Mile Summer And The Complete Walker) Tackled 1700 Miles Of The Colorado River By Raft And On Foot, But His Language Doesn't Match The Grandeur Of The Journey. More Than Half Of The Book Is Not About The Colorado River At All, But About A Tributary, The Green, Where Fletcher Begins His Trip. Another Difficulty Is That He Tries To Combine An Adventure Narrativethe Story Of A Man And A River Over A Period Of Six Monthswith A Memoir. Although Such A Parallel Construction Is Not Impossible (for Example, As In Doug Peacock's Grizzly Years, 1991), It Requires A Considerable Amount Of Discipline And Craft To Achieve. The Autobiography That Fletcher Attempts Is Fascinatingthe Story Of A Man Psychologically Wounded During World War Ii Who Seeks Lifelong Refuge In Nature And On Solitary Wilderness Tripsbut Many Of The Passages Read Like Hurried Journal Entries. Only In A Few Places Does The Prose Shine With That Old Fletcher Radiance, As When The Author Describes His Raft Plunging Through The Dangerous Rapids Of The Grand Canyon. Still, Although This Uneven Effort Doesn't Hold Up To Fletcher's Own Earlier Masterpiece On The Grand Canyon, The Man Who Walked Through Time (1968), It Is A Disappointment Well Worth Pondering. Fletcher's Journey Is About Making Peace. In The End, As He Rides Out Into The Gulf Of California (our Salt-sea Mother), He Concludes, If That's How Dying Waswell, All Right. Photos And Maps. (apr.)

No Mercy: A Journey into the Heart of the Congo, recently reissued in paperback, chronicles British travel writer Redmond O'Hanlon's latest adventure, though misadventure might be a more appropriate word. Both a hilarious account of inadequate preparation and an excess of dangerous bumbling about in the jungle and a classic tale of a civilized (well, all right, semi-civilized) man's journey into the green unknown, No Mercy is O'Hanlon in top form.

Stephanie Zacharek

There's a reason Redmond O'Hanlon is one of the finest travel writers around. Although his laserlike powers of observation and knack for telling a rip-roaring story have something to do with it, the thing that seals the deal is his complete willingness to cast himself as the straight man. He's the straightest straight guy around in No Mercy, which details the journey he made to a remote lake in the Congo, ostensibly in search of a mythical dinosaurlike creature that lives there, with a biologist friend and a coterie of guides and hired servants.

O'Hanlon isn't just your standard-issue brainy skeptic who, lo and behold, finds himself humbled by the mysteries he discovers in an untamed world. An experienced explorer -- one of his previous books, In Trouble Again, details an adventure in the Amazon -- he knows what to bring along on a trip: the proper tools and medications, plenty of toilet paper and liquor and cigarettes to give as gifts to people whose help he needs. But beyond that, he's so open to all kinds of wonder that he sometimes seems like an enthusiastic school kid on a field trip, and that's what makes No Mercy so engaging.

O'Hanlon writes about the people he meets as if he realizes he's only able to scratch the surface of their complexity. He never comes close to condescending to them: He doesn't laugh at their dependence on fetishes and their fear of sorcerers and murderous ghost creatures, and he makes sure the reader doesn't laugh, either. In describing the flora and fauna of the Congo, he never adopts that tired, emotionless Mr. Science Guy persona. When he spots a frightened mother gorilla, he (understandably) turns to mush: She sat in a high fork of the tree, plainly visible, and through the binoculars I looked straight into her shiny black face -- at her averted eyes beneath the big protruding brow, her squat nose, the two linked horseshoes of her nostrils, her wide thin lips -- she seemed extraordinarily human; I was seized with an absurd desire to hold her hand, to tell her that it was all right. In the book's finest section, O'Hanlon describes how he acted as a surrogate mother to a baby gorilla someone had given him. He kisses the top of its head and tries to explain Freudian theory to it as a way of illuminating the ways of the world.

Ultimately, No Mercy works because O'Hanlon recognizes that he's hardly the most interesting guy in his own book. That honor goes to Lary Shaffer, a biologist from Plattsburgh, N.Y., and O'Hanlon's companion through the first two-thirds of the story. When the two spot what they think is a flying squirrel, O'Hanlon starts fishing around in a guidebook to make sure he's identifying it correctly. While his nose is buried in the book, the squirrel takes a magnificent flying leap. 'Redso,' said Lary, putting a hand on my arm, 'did your mother never tell you? You can't learn everything from books ... You got to look around!' Of course, O'Hanlon looks around plenty. But what makes him so likable is that he can be a real putz -- and he's not afraid to admit it. -- Salon

Lit with humor, full of African birdsong and told with great narrative force, No Mercy is the magnum opus of "probably the finest writer of travel books in the English language,"as Bill Bryson wrote in Outside, "and certainly the most daring." Redmond O'Hanlon has journeyed among headhunters in deepest Borneo with the poet James Fenton, and amid the most reticent, imperilled and violent tribe in the Amazon Basin with a night-club manager. This, however, is his boldest journey yet. Accompanied by Lary Shaffer--an American friend and animal behaviorist, a man of imperfect health and brave decency--he enters the unmapped swamp-forests of the People's Republic of the Congo, in search of a dinosaur rumored to have survived in a remote prehistoric lake. The flora and fauna of the Congo are unrivalled, and with matchless passion O'Hanlon describes scores of rare and fascinating eagles and parrots, gorillas and chimpanzees, swamp antelope and forest elephants. But as he was repeatedly warned, the night belongs to Africa, and threats both natural (cobras, crocodiles, lethal insects) and supernatural (from all-powerful sorcerers to Samal, a beast whose three-clawed hands rip you across the back) make this a saga of much fear and trembling. Omnipresent too are ecological depredations, political and tribal brutality, terrible illness and unnecessary suffering among the forest pygmies, and an appalling waste of human life throughout this little-explored region. An elegant, disturbing and deeply compassionate evocation of a vanishing world, extraordinary in its depth, scope and range of characters, No Mercy is destined to become a landmark work of travel, adventure and natural history. A quest for the meaning of magic and the purpose of religion, and a celebration of the comforts and mysteries of science, it is also--and above all--a powerful guide to the humanity that prevails even in the very heart of darkness. From its Green River source in Wyoming to its black conclusion in Mexico's Gulf of California, the 1,700-mile Colorado is America's second-longest river and the one with the most beautiful vistas. For Fletcher this was an opportunity to perform aesthetic and emotional geology on the landscape (and on himself), and to treat the reader to a host of dramatic, moving and hilarious experiences. We see sandhill cranes and great blue herons; we experience many miles of whitewater challenges that stretch Fletcher's rafting capabilities to the limit; we float through stupendous canyons and open desert, pass mountains and abandoned villages; we flyfish for rainbow trout. We meet the people who live along the river, other adventurers, tourists. We wake up every morning to fresh views and the rewards of wilderness solitude. And finally we come to know this feisty curmudgeon who in his late sixties achieved the journey of a lifetime.

The backpacking guru and consummate observer of nature whose previous treks through the American West are recounted in The Man Who Walked Through Time and The Thousand-Mile Summer--now takes readers on a 1,700-mile, six-month journey down the entire length of America's second longest river, the Colorado. 41 photos. 15 maps.

Redmond O'Hanlon has journeyed among headhunters in deepest Borneo with the poet James Fenton, and amid the most reticent, imperilled and violent tribe in the Amazon Basin with a night-club manager. This, however, is his boldest journey yet. Accompanied by Lary Shaffer - an American friend and animal behaviorist, a man of imperfect health and brave decency - he enters the unmapped swamp-forests of the People's Republic of the Congo, in search of a dinosaur rumored to have survived in a remote prehistoric lake. The flora and fauna of the Congo are unrivalled, and with matchless passion O'Hanlon describes scores of rare and fascinating animals: eagles and parrots, gorillas and chimpanzees, swamp antelope and forest elephants. But as he was repeatedly warned, the night belongs to Africa, and threats both natural (cobras, crocodiles, lethal insects) and supernatural (from all-powerful sorcerers to Samale, a beast whose three-clawed hands rip you across the back) make this a saga of much fear and trembling. Omni-present too are ecological depredations, political and tribal brutality, terrible illness and unnecessary suffering among the forest pygmies, and an appalling waste of human life throughout this little-explored region. The bestselling, award-winning author of Bad Land realizes a lifelong dream as he navigates the waters of the Mississippi River in a sixteen-foot motorboat, producing yet another masterpiece of contemporary American travel writing. "Stunning." The New York Times Book Review In the course of his voyage, Raban records the mercurial caprices of the river and the astonishingly varied lives of the people who live along its banks. Whether he is fishing for walleye or hunting coon, discussing theology in Prairie Du Chien or race relations in Memphis, he is an expert observer of the heartyland's estrangement from America's capitals ot power and culture, and its helpless nostalgia for its lost past. Witty, elegaic, and magnificently erudite, Old Glory is as filled with strong currents as the Mississippi itself.

the Author Of bad Land Realizes A Lifelong Dream As He Navigates The Waters Of The Mississippi River In A Spartan Sixteen-foot Motorboat, Producing Yet Another Masterpiece Of Contemporary American Travel Writing.  in The Course Of His Voyage, Raban Records The Mercurial Caprices Of The River And The Astonishingly Varied Lives Of The People Who Live Along Its Banks.  whether He Is Fishing For Walleye Or Hunting Coon, Discussing Theology In Prairie Du Chien Or Race Relations In Memphis, He Is An Expert Observer Of The Heartyland's Estrangement From America's Capitals Ot Power And Culture, And Its Helpless Nostalgia For Its Lost Past.  witty, Elegaic, And Magnificently Erudite, old Glory Is As Filled With Strong Currents As The Mississippi Itself.

At age sixty-seven, Colin Fletcher, the guru of backpacking in America, undertook a rigorous six-month raft expedition down the full length of the Colorado River--alone. He needed "something to pare the fat off my soul ... to make me grateful, again, for being alive." The 1,700 miles between the Colorado's source in Wyoming and its conclusion at Mexico's Gulf of California contain some of the most spectacular vistas on earth, and Fletcher is the ideal guide for the terrain. As his privileged companions, we travel to places like Disaster Falls and Desolation Canyon, observe beaver and elk, experience sandstorms and whitewater rapids, and share Fletcher's thoughts on the human race, the environment, and the joys of solitude In Pass the Butterworms , Cahill takes us to the steppes of Mongolia, where he spends weeks on horseback alongside the descendants of Genghis Khan and masters the Mongolian death trot; to the North Pole, where he goes for a pleasure dip in the 36-degree water; to Irian Jaya New Guinea, where he spends a companionable evening with members of one of the last head-hunting tribes. Whether observing family values among the Stone Age Dani people, or sampling delicacies like sauted sago beetle and premasticated manioc beer, Cahill is a fount of arcane information and a master of self-deprecating humor. In Pass the Butterworms Cahill takes us to the steppes of Mongolia, where he spends weeks on horseback alongside the descendants of Genghis Khan and masters the'Mongolian death trot'; to the North Pole, where he goes for a pleasure dip in 36-degree water; to Irian Jaya New Guinea, where he spends a companionable evening with members of one of the last head-hunting tribes. Whether observing family values among the Stone Age Dani people, or sampling delicacies like sautéed sago beetle and premasticated manioc beer, Cahill is a fount of arcane information and a master of self-deprecating humor.

The Intrepid voyager and author of A Wolverine Is Eating My Leg presents another delightful collection of adventure-travel writings that are full of the irreverent wit and appreciation for the absurd that are uniquely--and hilariously--his. 304 pp. 20,000 print.

Ted Conover

There is adventure and, most important, there is Tim Cahill, with his winning...sense of humor. -- Ted Conover, The New York Times Book Review

Chronicles author Jonathan Raban's voyage down the Mississippi River on a sixteen-foot motorboat, and includes information about the people he met, the places he stopped, and the history of the Mississippi In a collection of travel adventures, the author journeys from the rivers of Honduras to the grasslands of Mongolia, from Yellowstone's famed geysers to the deep jungles of Peru Details the author's six-month foot-and-raft journey from the source of the Colorado River in Wyoming to its conclusion in Mexico's Gulf of California