The Same River Twice -- Chris Offutt

Now towards the end of the novel, this chapter starts out with the narrator hitchhiking his way down to Florida for a job that he was hired for. He finds a sign on the side of the rode claiming that Florida is the worst place to try to catch a ride and how long he had been waiting for. Etched under this is a list of several other names and the times that they had waited. The narrator begins to wonder what he was thinking trying to make his way down to Florida. He finally makes his way to the Everglades and begins working at his new job. He befriends a man named Captain Jack, who pilots the boat that he gives tours on. One day, a French boy falls into the Everglades, and the narrator jumps off the boat after him. Captain Jack comments that that was a "damn foolish thing to do." Later, after eating dinner at Captain Jack's, he shows the narrator the room he will  be staying in. There is a picture of his son, a Marine, and Jack tells the narrator how he died trying to save three of his friends, and again that it was a "damn foolish thing to do." After this, the narrator comments on how a rift has formed between him and Jack, and that their relationship is never quite the same. A hurricane soon comes through, and everyone survives the storm. The narrator soon meets a woman, Rita, and they get married. The narrator finally applies to grad school and gets accepted at the University of Iowa. The book ends with the birth of the narrator's son, and the stressful time leading up to his birth. Three months later, the father takes his son out to the woods, and thinks of all the things that he wishes to tell him; he settles with realizing that he can't let his soon learn from his father's mistakes, but rather, must experience things on his own.

The Same River Twice -- Chris Offutt

This novel is a very interesting novel that details the life of the author back through his youth. Through all the things that he went through, he finds himself surprised that here he is, married, and about to be a father. I find it very interesting the way that this novel fluctuates between the past and the present, giving a good sense of what is actually going on in the author's life at the time, and then actually feeling him remember his past. To me, this is a very powerful and visual writing method. I found it very interesting that the novel starts off with such a vivid passage of how he and his wife struggle to get pregnant. But then again, it does a good job of displaying the very strong emotions that are felt by a couple when struggling with the difficulty of becoming pregnant, as well as highlighting the fact that this is actually a very big commitment.

Guest Blog: Will Hopkins

America

The land of the free, maybe too free
Home of the brave, unless the gun is pointed towards them
At one point in time this held true
But now the meaning of "free" and "brave" have been mangled up and beaten down