River of Forgotten Days: A Journey Down the Mississippi in Search of La Salle [Hardcover]

Daniel Spurr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 1998

A poignant voyage of discovery down the great Mississippi.

Praised by such authors as John Barth, and George V. Higgins, Dan Spurr's gently powerful memoir, Steered by the Falling Stars, captured the hearts of readers with its story of death, rebirth, and redemption and its evocative description of life under sail. Now, Spurr takes us on another adventure, a voyage into not only the heartland of contemporary America but also back into the rough and ready days of exploration and discovery 250 years ago.

Following the trail of the enigmatic French explorer Rene de La Salle, Spurr takes his seven-year-old son Steve and his grown daughter Adriana down the Mississippi from Chicago to New Orleans in the rundown, underpowered Belle. Throughout the journey, the juxtaposition of modern America on the river's banks and the untamed wilds of La Salle's day, as revealed through journals and historical documents, illuminates the changes in the land and its people over the intervening centuries.

The inexorable flow of Spurr's clean and honest prose mirrors that of this greatest of American rivers. The voices of the river's denizens and the keen observations of the author's young and wide-eyed shipmates take us deep into the heart of an ever-changing American landscape.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Mississippi, winding brown spine of America, provides the backbone of this elegiac book by writer and boating enthusiast Daniel Spurr. In simple, forthright language, his River of Forgotten Days intertwines the bittersweet tale of Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle--who, in the 17th century, became the first European to navigate the length of the Big Muddy--with the author's own adventures on the Mississippi in a homely but durable fishing boat named Pearl.

Much like the river, Spurr's prose flows at its own pace, shifting rhythmically between the historical facts (so far as they are known) of LaSalle's journey and Spurr's own pilgrimage, born of a childhood fascination with both La Salle and the untamed "pre-American" wilderness that seduced--and often destroyed--early European explorers. Accompanied by his seven-year-old son (whom he hopes to wean, if only temporarily, from his Game Boy), Spurr searches out touchstones of La Salle's epic voyage. Some are unspoiled enough to induce reveries of ghostly wolf packs and buffalo-darkened plains; most are soulless suburban outposts offering only cracked asphalt and empty beer cans.

All is not lost, however; River of Forgotten Days brings to life a true American icon, a still-powerful river where, despite levees stretching from Illinois to the Delta, a whiff of pre-America remains for those who care to seek it out. And, especially important for those of us who live far from the mighty Mississippi, Spurr's book includes photographs and illustrations of both the river and the historical sites and people associated with it. --Rebecca Gleason

From Publishers Weekly

A little over 300 years after the French explorer Ren? de La Salle became the first known European to travel from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, Spurr, editor of Practical Sailor magazine, followed his route, starting in Chicago and sailing down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans in Belle, a 20-foot fishing boat. He was accompanied by his seven-year-old son, Steve, and later joined by his 24-year-old daughter, Adria, on this 16-day trip. Spurr devotes a fair amount of time to the technical problems of sailing and repair but also includes historical reconstructions of La Salle's explorationsAincluding speculation that he, not Jolliet, was the white discoverer of the upper Mississippi. There is also a good deal of Spurr family history (especially memories of a dead father and a dead son), descriptions of local sights and affectionate and humorous anecdotes of a father and a young son traveling together. Unlike Jonathan Raban (Old Glory), who delighted in the eccentricities he encountered during his sail down the Mississippi, Spurr is usually sunny and amused, more interested in the journey itselfAand the story of La SalleAthan in what he sees en route. Included, too, are pleasant asides on underwater explorations for La Salle shipwrecks in the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. This is a thoroughly enjoyable recreation. Photos.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.; 1st edition (June 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805046321
• ISBN-13: 978-0805046328
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,064,778 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An attempt to combine North American history with family fun, January 8, 1999

By 

John Eastman ([e-mail]) (Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: River of Forgotten Days: A Journey Down the Mississippi in Search of La Salle (Hardcover)

This book is as much, or more, of a parental odyssey than a historical one. What information Spurr presents on LaSalle and current thinking and research about this fascinating French explorer is solid and intriguing. Far less engaging, at least to this reader, is Spurr's own family story. Long, dreary episodes tell us considerably more than we want to know about father, mother, and children (his wife mercifully escapes our scrutiny); he even quotes at length some of the clever little bedtime stories he makes up for his son. While all of this wordage is significant to him, no doubt -- and even mildly interesting, perhaps, to other daddies and mommies -- it provides a less than enchanting gift to the general reader. The book belongs on the parents' shelf of "what I did with my kids last summer" rather than with serious historical travelogs. One comes away with the impression that the relatively minor focus on LaSalle emerged as an incidental by-product of a family jaunt. Also, Spurr is not an especially gifted writer, making some of his too-frequent, ruminative, pretentiously insightful passages less than crystalline at best, murky and obscure at worst. Unfortunately, his prose comes alive only when he's discussing his boat or his kids. We learn precious little about the mighty river itself, its dwellers and endless permutations. Spurr's bankside activities mostly revolve around acquiring fuel for his boat. Still, Spurr's book is worth reading for its useful gleanings about current discoveries relating to LaSalle -- one must just tread a lot of water in order to find the good stuff.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars River of Forgettable Days, May 2, 1999

By 

Jacqueline Baros Smith([e-mail]) (Los Griegos, Albuquerque, N.M., USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: River of Forgotten Days: A Journey Down the Mississippi in Search of La Salle (Hardcover)

I want to be sympathetic to an established writer, so John Eastman's review from Jan, 99 sums it up for me in every detail. I ate up the History in his book, which was my reason for reading, but the kid stuff drove me crazy (I've got some of my own), and the writing, exclusive of the historical part, was bad. I think all poor Dan Spurr needed was a good honest editor.

3.0 out of 5 stars Two books afraid to stand alone, February 16, 2008

By 

Kevin C. Saff (Calgary) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: River of Forgotten Days: A Journey Down the Mississippi in Search of LA Salle (Hardcover)

What is this book? Is it a story of a man trying to impart some peace and maturity to his young son with a river journey, or is it that of an author tracking down new discoveries of an old explorer? It is both; it is neither; it is an experiment in organizing text that didn't fully work out.

Overall, I found the narrative of this book too complicated to follow. He tries to weave together too many strands: the history of La Salle, his trip downriver with his children, visits to artifact-hunters, and stories invented for his son. This may have worked if it were organized in a geographically or chronologically coherent way, but I got dizzy trying to keep track of exactly where and when we were in all the different strands.

I have to admit that going into this book I knew almost nothing about La Salle, and coming out I don't feel like I know much more. I think the historical parts of this book are written to an audience who is already familiar with and excited by La Salle. Near the climax of the historical portion the author expresses excitement at touching "something La Salle probably had touched", a statement that left me particularly cold, wishing he could have gotten some of his excitement across to me.

The journey was better told, I thought, but still I felt let down at the end, since he doesn't offer much resolution as far as the stated purpose of the trip, shaping up his son. Still, the trip seemed fun and I wish he had used my interest here to help me understand La Salle's story.

It feels like there are two books here, stuck together because each was afraid to stand on its own.