The Same River Twice: A Memoir [Paperback]

Chris Offutt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 25, 2003

At the age of nineteen, Chris Offutt had already been rejected by the army, the Peace Corps, the park rangers, and the police. So he left his home in the Kentucky Appalachians and thumbed his way north -- into a series of odd jobs and even stranger encounters with his fellow Americans. Fifteen years later, Offutt finds himself in a place he never thought he'd be: settled down with a pregnant wife. Writing from the banks of the Iowa River, where he came to rest, he intersperses the story of his youthful journeys with that of his journey to fatherhood in a memoir that is uniquely candid, occasionally brutal, and often wonderfully funny. As he reckons with the comforts and terrors of maturity, Offutt also discovers what is best in life and in himself.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

What keeps this first book by Offut from becoming a familiar nonfictional Bildungsroman is the author's sensitivity to nature and his lyrical prose in writing about it. Offut, however, is far less successful in describing people: his memoir is populated by a predictable array of derelicts, oddballs and near-psychotics as he journeys around the U.S., dreaming alternately of becoming an actor, a painter, a playwright and a poet, yet usually doing little to realize his aspirations. Only those who are intrigued by America's social underside will enjoy Offut's portraits of human flotsam. The underlying plot of the book concerns his wife's pregnancy and the birth of their first child, a son, but neither Offut's approach to nor his words about this subject are original.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

A new and promising writer, Offutt records his rocky road to manhood and becoming a writer. Whether hitching a ride with a dangerous character or working as a walrus in a traveling circus, he felt compelled to keep a journal. He left Appalachia at 19 and took a decade to realize he was sinking ever deeper into failure. Finally, he changed course, got married, and, with the encouragement of his wife, enrolled in a writing program. The results were a 1990 Michener Award for short fiction and a collection of stories, Kentucky Straight (Random, 1992). In his current volume, by turns lyrical and graphic, outrageous and sensitive, tragic and hilarious, Offutt writes of the 29 stitches his wife required after childbirth, how his mother spoke "gentle as rain," and of the twinkling of beaver saliva on fresh wood chips in the Iowa woods where he now lives. Strong writing in a memoir of particular interest to academic libraries.
- Nancy Shires, East Carolina Univ., Greenville, N.C.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (March 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743229495
• ISBN-13: 978-0743229494
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #162,576 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Country boy writes moving and hilarious memoir, February 22, 2002

By 

D. Cooke "[e-mail]" (Macon, GA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Same River Twice: A Memoir (Mass Market Paperback)

Besides the fact that Chris Offutt is a great writer, I like the guy's work because he's so honest and genuine. For those of you who can't tell the difference, Chris is an authentic country boy. Reading this memoir and sections of his novel "The Good Brother", I recognize the rhythm of speech, turns of phrase, and basic life assumptions that are innate in country boys like us from the Great State of Kentucky and southward, although I'm afraid that some traits are more reflected in the guys I prosecute than in myself. Offutt has given an admirable voice to a class of folks who are ridiculed and berated, but rarely understood. Thank you for helping us understand, Mr. Offutt-those of us seeking to understand ourselves, and those for whom the country is a place to visit. I'm afraid there aren't too many people today who get sentimental when they hear their state song the way we do when we hear "My Old Kentucky Home" (or "Georgia on my Mind"). It seems like no one understands the point of standing on a handful of dirt from your homeland when you get married in a foreign land (or New York City). At least they will recognize great writing when they see it. And here it is in your memoir.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Memoir of a modern day troubador!, June 24, 2000

By 

Marion "[e-mail]" (Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Same River Twice: A Memoir (Mass Market Paperback)

I loved this book and have re-read it several times. The account of his first sexual experience in New York City is worth the price of the book. It is hilarious!

I was hooked from the moment I read this quote in the front of the book by Richard Hugo, "I forget the names of the towns without rivers. A town needs a river to forgive the town. Whatever river, whatever town---It is much the same. The cruel things I did, I took to the river. I begged the current: make me better."

Chris Offutt has takes ordinary words and weaves them into memorable events that stick in your mind long after the last page is read. The way he intertwines the story of his travels and his journey into fatherhood is beautiful.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review for Same River Twice: A memoir, May 8, 2000

By 

"jlf2602" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Same River Twice: A Memoir (Mass Market Paperback)

this is an absolutely beautiful piece. offett has the ability to make the reader laugh, cry, and think critically all at the same time. It is unpredictable, interesting, and provocative. It was hard for me to believe that after all his crazy adventures he was actually going thru with fatherhood. it is a wonderful look into one talented writer's life. and katherine dunn could learn a few things about how carnival life should be portrayed by reading offett's memoir. a must read for fans of memoir, autobiography, and autobiographical fiction.