Customer Reviews

River Teeth: Stories and Writings

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When DJD writes about a game of catch the ball burns my hand thru the mitt. When his story is about wading up a trout stream, my neck gets hot from the sun on it, I can hear the mosquitos whine, and my feet go numb from the cold water. He writes books that I could live in and I don't even play baseball. Or fish.

On a long trip up and down the west coast I picked this book up in a shabby bookstore in the hills of San Francisco on a lonely rainy night. It gave me a strange and warm comfort as I battled my way through the vicous rain for the last two weeks of my trip. The book is erre in ways I cannot explain, simply because you read it and understand it so well. Everything Duncan describes has been a part of all our lives somewhere, somehow. This book deeply moved me, and though I was mearly 16 on that rainy night I can never escape the vivid imagery of Duncan's voice.

River Teeth is a richly woven and intricate collection of short works. Duncan's writing is thick like poetry; his words are delictible. River Teeth explores the beauty of life through glimpses of nature, family, and human spirituality. Duncan is my favorite author and this is my favorite book.

I read these stories several years ago. I still refer to many of them often in conversations. I particularly liked "Her Idiots", "Giving Normal the Finger" and "The Garbage Man's Daughter". Any time I am around a stream or river, including recently with a group in New Zealand, I tell people about Duncan's book and story "River Teeth". Then I go on to praise his other books, particularly THE RIVER WHY. Great writer! Great writing!

I was a hitch-hikn' looking for Sissy out there somewhere and along comes this book with the upside down fish-hook on it and I finally had the term for my favorite piece of women's clothing (i.e. 'the upper tenth of a pair of levis').

Ten years later I was having babies and was reading The Brothers K with my son asleep on my chest.

Now, well beyond that divorce, I find "home" in David's stories in River Teeth. His attention to me not his characters is extremely evident through his writing. I can still get chills up my spine just thinking about that Oregon concert when the lightning and thunder peeled...

This book is a collection of short non-fiction pieces and short fiction pieces. Although that combination is an unusual format for a book, it works well. Duncan is an outstanding writer and this book illustrates his talents. I love the book so much, I've bought several copies over the years to give to friends. All of the pieces are good, and every baseball fan or anyone who has a sibling should read "The Mickey Mantle Koan," included in the book.

A series of short stories that will make you get up, walkaround, mull over, then return... Anyone who has a daughter shouldmark the story "The garbageman's daughter" as a must read!!! Mr. Duncan continues to be one of America's greatest writers!!

as I read this book. Although I don't like fishing (Duncan's favorite subject), I do like good stories. And Duncan knows how to write them. This book is easy to read because it is a compilation of short stories, albeit some better than others. But all the stories are worth reading at least once. And believe me, after the first time, you will be returning to read a few of the stories over and over. I know I did.

If you laughed at the "River Why?" and cried over "The Brothers K" then you'll do much more with "River Teeth." You'll meet old friends and make new ones as well as learn who that wonderful writer, David Duncan, is. A truely wonderful book!

I have a difficult time writing anything negative about David James Duncan, to me he can do no wrong (except not being prolific). He has about broke my bank, because nobody to whom I was foolish enough to "Lend" "The River Why' to would ever return it, and this was in the olden days of pre-internet. I had to buy about a skillion copies of the thing.
Anyway, about this collection, there is his brilliance, comic and spiritual, in here. His beautifully voiced observations and the touching characters, they are in here, too. In any other writer I would give this 5 stars, but placing this against his later work (not fair, I know, but I'm doing it anyway) it just doesn't fly the with joy that "The River Why" has, nor the deep inspiration of "God Laughs and Plays"
That said, it's still on my shelf and it's staying. I just wouldn't recommend this for your first time with this author