The River : a memoir of life in the border cities

"What is the Detroit River? It's dumps, dogpatches, ships, steamers, storms. It's monthlong salvage operations. It's the Zug Island stacks, belching clouds of purple and yellow: naphthalene, chromium, benzene, copper. It's the reflection of a city in riot. And it's the singing motormen, the agitators, and the autoworkers who look into its waves every day and see something of their future. 'The River Detroit' is Paul Vasey's tribute to a place he discovered by accident and loved over a lifetime. Chatty, anecdotal, personal and passionate, by one of Windsor's most celebrated broadcasters, this grassroots memoir brings to life a new kind of border city: a Windsor that captured a reporter's imagination, stole his heart, and eventually became the place he calls home. Praise for Paul Vasey's 'A Troublesome Boy and Other Works' "Beneath the tough guy prose lurks a philosopher trying to understand the lack of love. Vasey's writing is gruesome and gritty going, very compelling." - The Globe and Mail "Sharp, perceptive and vigorously written, Vasey's novel confronts the past in a way that rings true to adolescence in the present. Imaginative dialogue, an energetic pace and nuanced characters make this exceptional." - The Toronto Star "What Kerouac does for America, Vasey does for Windsor" - Room Magazine "A smooth and captivating read." - Canadian Book Review Annual "Ask anyone what they love most about Winzer, and they seem always to tell you it's the people, the family and friends webbed around each of us. True. But for me the town is also, and perhaps mainly, the larger-than-life characters who ghost around in my imagination and my memory: rumrunners and prize fighters and elegant old ladies and one-eyed thugs and earnest well-meaning politicians and hucksters and hookers and crusty old editors.
Many of them I remember meeting.
Some of them I actually met."
—from The River

The River is Paul Vasey’s tribute to a place he discovered by accident and loved over a lifetime. Chatty, anecdotal, personal and passionate, by one of Windsor’s most celebrated reporters and radio hosts, this meandering memoir winds its way around a river town whose sights and characters may never be fully charted: a Windsor that fired a reporter’s imagination, stole his heart, and eventually became the place he calls home.
"Ask anyone what they love most about Winzer, and they seem always to tell you it's the people, the family and friends webbed around each of us. True. But for me the town is also, and perhaps mainly, the larger-than-life characters who ghost around in my imagination and my memory: rumrunners and prize fighters and elegant old ladies and one-eyed thugs and earnest well-meaning politicians and hucksters and hookers and crusty old editors. Many of them I remember meeting. Some of them I actually met." —from __The River__ __The River__ is Paul Vasey's tribute to a place he discovered by accident and loved over a lifetime. Chatty, anecdotal, personal and passionate, by one of Windsor's most celebrated reporters and radio hosts, this meandering memoir winds its way around a river town whose sights and characters may never be fully charted: a Windsor that fired a reporter's imagination, stole his heart, and eventually became the place he calls home. A vivacious memoir of life along the Detroit River, from the prize-winning reporter, novelist, and CBC broadcaster Paul Vasey.