Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

When I saw La Salle in the title, I was almost put off this book, but I am glad I took the time to look a bit further. Being a Mississippi River travelog buff, I hoped to find something of interst in this book and indeed I did. Skipping all the entries on La Salle and focusing only on Daniel Spurr's here and now story, I felt as if I were traveling along with him as "a fly on the wall" in the cramped quarters of Spurr's boat, Pearl. The author and his family seemed to be involved with the waters and the banks of this river as opposed to just skimming past to be getting somewhere. I empathized with the author over the myriad uncertainties, irritations and feelings of guilt that go hand-in-hand with parenting. I understood the deisre to introduce his young son to a world far removed from the two-dimensional-virtual-reality vortex Steve was fast becoming addicted to. Travel can be about getting away from or going toward, but I think this story was ultimately about going along WITH. And in this case, I think Mr. Spurr and his children were traveling in spirit with the son Peter, who died in a train accident. I felt a deep heartache coming through in Spurr's words, but also his hope of renewal and his sense of the circle of life. Pre-America barely exisits anymore within the 48 contiguous states, but along the banks of The Mississippi, this author came close to finding it, in spirit and in fact.

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