cover image Down the Mississippi: A Poignant Story of Adventure, Triumph-And Loss

Down the Mississippi: A Poignant Story of Adventure, Triumph-And Loss

Leo Sheridan Anderson. Bonus Books, $16.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-929387-98-7

In his first book, former magazine editor Anderson describes in a light, breezy style his three-and-a-half-month canoe trip, at age 65, down the Mississippi River in 1990, from its Minnesota origin to Louisiana Outlet in the Gulf of Mexico. Unable to leave his lifestyle behind in suburban Chicago, Anderson spends much of this ``adventure'' lolling in motels, bars, restaurants and laundromats and pining over a collapsing marriage to Becky, 30 years his junior. While the author's physical prowess is admirable during the grueling 2300-mile journey, his reflective capacities course shallow water. Traveling about half the way with family members and friends, Anderson fails to confront his apparent fear of growing old in loneliness. The excursion of a lifetime paddles off into the minutiae of dinner menus, campsites, barge-tow counts and daily mileage records. Photos not seen by PW. (June)