Customer Reviews

Platte River

5 star:		(3)
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2 star:		(1)
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You get an overall sense of gloom from the peoples lives in the book, but I believe the author wants you to look deeper than just that. One story is basically the more the change, the more the things remain the same. Another looks at peoples strengths vs. weakness's and surprisingly where you will find them. And, finally, another looks at looking inside yourself. Among this, is the most beautiful and desriptive narrative of mother nature in all her glory. You can easily picture Exactly where and what he is talking about. It never fails that a few words thrown together will bring back memories of your own that you had long forgotten.

Award-winning author Rick Bass presents Platte River, an anthology of three novellas each of which presents a human heart experiencing the infinite majesty of God's natural creation. "Mahatma Joe" is the tale of an evangelist who makes a home for himself in Grass Valley, Montana, and the woman who falls head over heels for his vision of the world; "Field Events" is the story of a woman who pines for an athlete who is even more muscular than her discus-tossing brothers; and "Platte River" is about a man's meditation on the nature and meaning of loneliness, peace, and the search for love. A warm, introspective read, filled with lush imagery of beautiful natural wonders.

These stories are about something that no one else I know of is writing about. I can't make out what it is exactly. I'll leave lists of superlatives to professional book reviewers and just give you what for me is the bottom line -- this book is important

I keep wanting to like Rick Bass so I gave this book a try. The title story was the best, but for me at least it is still marred by being difficult to take seriously at times, which is an even larger problem with the other stories. Perhaps more troublesome is the fact that Bass always seems to be trying too hard to make his stories "life-affecting." He wants to leave the reader somehow changed, and his stories do not quite get me there. Although often I suppose that I appreciate his effort to do so, I am too aware of it to fall under his spell.