Staff Pick: On the Water

On the Water: discovering America in a rowboat by Nathaniel Stone

As a child, the author had imagined what it would be like to set out in a small boat and follow the rivers, lakes, and canals of the U.S. As an adult, in a 17-foot scull, he did just that; pushing off from New York City's Hudson River, he rowed to the Erie Canal, down to Ohio, onward to the Mississippi, across the Gulf to Key West, and back up along the coastline of the Atlantic to Maine. It was a 6,000-mile journey, and it took him 10 months to complete. This is the chronicle of his adventure, his voyage into and around America, the story of the people he met and the places he saw. It's not one of those faux-poetic, pseudo-philosophical travel books in which the author finds the meaning of the universe on the road (or in his boat). Instead, it's a straightforward, crisply written memoir: here's where I went, here's what I did, here are some people I met. The author shows great respect for the places and people he encountered, and only slowly, almost imperceptibly, buried in the fascinating detail, does a message emerge: the U.S. is a wonderful place to drift through, a country filled with interesting, unusual, helpful people and beautiful things to see.
Copyright 2002 Booklist Reviews