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This story of a middle-aged woman's odyssey down the Mississippi River is a funny, beautifully written, and poignant tale of a journey that transforms a life
In fall 2005 acclaimed travel writer Mary Morris set off down the Mississippi in a battered old houseboat called the River Queen, with two river rats named Tom and Jerry-and a rat terrier, named Samantha Jean, who hated her. It was a time of emotional turmoil for Morris. Her father had just died; her daughter was leaving home; life was changing all around her. It was then she decided to return to the Midwest where she was from, to the river she remembered, where her father had played jazz piano in tiny towns.
Morris describes living like a pirate and surviving a tornado. Because of Katrina, oil prices, and drought, the river was often empty-a ghost river-and Morris experienced it as Joliet and Marquette had four hundred years earlier. As she learned to pilot her beloved River Queen without running aground and made peace with Samantha Jean, Morris got her groove back, reconnecting to her past. More important, she came away with her best book, a bittersweet travel tale told in the very real voice of a smart, sad, funny, gutsy, and absolutely appealing woman.
In fall 2005 acclaimed travel writer Mary Morris set off down the Mississippi in a battered old houseboat called the River Queen, with two river rats named Tom and Jerry-and a rat terrier, named Samantha Jean, who hated her. It was a time of emotional turmoil for Morris. Her father had just died; her daughter was leaving home; life was changing all around her. It was then she decided to return to the Midwest where she was from, to the river she remembered, where her father had played jazz piano in tiny towns.
Morris describes living like a pirate and surviving a tornado. Because of Katrina, oil prices, and drought, the river was often empty-a ghost river-and Morris experienced it as Joliet and Marquette had four hundred years earlier. As she learned to pilot her beloved River Queen without running aground and made peace with Samantha Jean, Morris got her groove back, reconnecting to her past. More important, she came away with her best book, a bittersweet travel tale told in the very real voice of a smart, sad, funny, gutsy, and absolutely appealing woman.
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Reviews
"In The River Queen Mary Morris once again demonstrates her wit, eloquence, generosity, curiosity and compassion as she takes us on a journey into the past and the present, into a very particular American landscape and her own complicated history. She is the ideal traveling companion."
Margot Livesey, author of Eva Moves the Furniture and other novels
"If you don't know Mary Morris's name, you should: she writes from the heart with grace and wit and poetry, finding words for the loves and the losses we all have and can't ever seem to describe. Morris's latest memoir is a valentine to the bonds and the breaks between fathers and daughters, the steady flow of family, the tributaries that divert us from the journeys we must take to find our way home. The River Queen is my new favorite book; I wish I'd been the one to write something so flawless, so honest, and so resonant."
Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of My Sister's Keeper and Nineteen Minutes
"On the surface, Mary Morris's midlife journey of memory and mourning may meander down the Mississippi River, but underneath the water courses a poignant story of acceptance and resolution. Not one to sugar-coat her observations, her travelogue compellingly weaves her inner and outer journeys, resulting in a quietly moving memoir filled with humor, compassion, and honesty."
Liz Perle, author of Money: A Memoir