Aside from Rinker Buck’s strained effort telling us how great he is, what a fantastic job he did, and the repetition of info, especially the joke about the river sucking your underwear off, this was an enjoyable read. Ironically, he almost comes across as the sort of braggart he doesn’t like much. For him it seems more an aggressive need for validation of his efforts.
As someone who’s spent lots of time travelling downriver, to Memphis, to New Orleans on raft and Johnboat, towboats, I enjoyed the history, the navigation, the river travel, despite the more or less jumbled and repetitious way the journey is presented. Often, I got the feeling things were a little “off” as evidenced by the title itself, given that most of the book described his journey on the Ohio (and of course it is Mark Twain’s title). Other participants wandered in and out of the narrative haphazardly, and we hardly get to know them given descriptions that feel more like skipping stones than character study. Still, Buck’s wandering through the dark cotton fields on an electric bike at night finding his way back to the flatboat is something I could immediately appreciate.
Despite the annoyances, Life on the Mississippi, And Epic American Adventure was an easy read, and I enjoyed it well enough.
