This extended personal narrative by poet and author Lane (Waist Deep in Black Water
) focuses on the Chattooga River, which runs along the border of Georgia and South Carolina. The river and the "isolated, rugged mountain landscape" through which it runs were the setting for James Dickey's 1970 novel Deliverance
and its 1972 film adaptation, about a group of suburban men whose canoeing trip becomes a face-off with torture and death. Lane thinks that Dickey's tale was "one of the central adventure stories of my generation," which told of a "hero's journey of separation, initiation and return." Having previously explored the river, Lane returns to journey the entire length of it, describing its natural beauty and danger as well as pausing to view it through the prism of Dickey's book. In the best parts, Lane artfully applies his poetic sensibility to the river itself, such as when he describes the results of a heavy rainfall: "the highway swings around swells of native rock, the runoff peels into the Chattooga drainage, burbling through culverts and ping-ponging off stream pebbles weathered from the old Appalachian range." Equally enjoyable, though less moving, are Lane's portraits of local residents and their views about the book and film, which did not paint a flattering picture of the area and its citizens. The weakest parts are those where Lane directly compares the river with aspects of Dickey's book. Lane's own writing and observations are good enough to stand outside of Dickey's considerable shadow. (Apr.)
