My Story as Told by Water Confessions, Druidic Rants, Reflections, Bird-watchings, Fish-stalkings, Visions, Songs and Prayers Refracting Light, From Living Rivers, in the Age of the Industrial Dark

by Duncan, David James

• ISBN13: 9781578050833
• ISBN10: 1578050839
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-08-01
• Publisher: Ingram Book Co

Summary

In this remarkable collection of essays, acclaimed author David James Duncan braids his contemplative, rhapsodic, and activist voices together into a potently distinctive whole, speaking with power and urgency about the vital connections between our water–filled bodies and this water–covered planet. All twenty–two pieces in this collection swirl and eddy around his early–forged bond with the rivers of the Pacific Northwest and their endangered native salmon. With a bracing blend of story, science, and comedy, Duncan relates mystical, life–changing adventures; draws incisive portraits of the humans and wild creatures who shaped his destiny; rips the corporate greed and political folly that have brought whole ecosystems to ruin; and meditates on the spiritual and practical necessity of acknowledging our dependence on water in its primal state.

Author Biography

David James Duncan is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship and is a National Book Award finalist for My Story as Told by Water. Best known for his two best-selling novels, The River Why and The Brothers K--both received the Pacific Northwest Booksellers award. The Brothers K was a New York Times Notable Book in 1992 and won a Best Books Award from the American Library Association.

Table of Contents

Wonder Versus Loss
Valmiki's Palm	p. 3
Birdwatching as a Blood Sport	p. 31
The Non Sense of Place	p. 49
Tilt	p. 57
Who Owns the West?: Seven Wrong Answers	p. 61
Six Henry Stories	p. 81
Activism
Native	p. 99
Lake of the Stone Mother	p. 115
The War for Norman's River	p. 129
The 1872 Knee-Mining Act & Your Exciting Financial Future!	p. 151
Beauty/Violence/Grief/Frenzy/Love: On the Contemplative Versus the Activist Life	p. 167
A Prayer for the Salmon's Second Coming	p. 181
River Soldiers	p. 215
Strategic Withdrawal	p. 221
Fishing the Inside Passage
Idiot Joy	p. 229
In Praise of No Guide	p. 233
Estuary from an Afterlife	p. 237
Fearless Leader	p. 243
Khwaja Khadir	p. 249
God	p. 263
Spirit-Fried No-Name River Brown Trout: A Recipe	p. 273
"The Lives of Tuan Mac Cairill"	p. 283
About the Photographs	p. 287
Acknowledgments	p. 291
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