There Was a River

By Bruce Berger

Book Overview

On October 7, 1962, Bruce Berger and three friends embarked on what may have been the last trip taken through the Colorado River's Glen Canyon before the floodgates were closed at Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell began to fill. After thirty years, one can grieve for what was lost and then, like Berger, take another look around. The Southwest Berger sees is an unusual, even odd, place, with inhabitants that are just as strange. In this collection of essays he introduces us to people and places that define a region and a way of life. We meet eccentric desert dwellers like Cactus Pete, who claimed to have mapped the mountains of Venus long before NASA penetrated its clouds. We chart the canals of Phoenix, which have created a Martian landscape out of an irrigation system dating back to the ancient Hohokam; stay at a "wigwam" motel in Holbrook, whose kitsch appeals even to Hopis; and dim our lights for the International Dark-Sky Association's efforts to keep night skies safe for astronomy. Focusing on the interaction of people with the environment, Berger reveals an original vision of the Southwest that encompasses both city and wilderness. In a concluding essay centering on the sale of his mother's estate in Phoenix, he concedes that "our intention to leave the desert alone has resulted, unwittingly, in loss after loss, simply by our being here." Sometimes there are losses--a canyon, a house--but Berger attunes us to the prodigies of change.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0816514690
• ISBN13: 9780816514694
• Release Date: August 1994
• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Length: 198 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.8" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

rediscovering an old friend

I first read Bruce Berger's "The Telling Distance" about ten years ago. It's desert ruminations stayed with me for the long distance. So, I picked it up again and read it again this year. But it ended too soon, so I checked around and found "There Was a River." Once you've spent even a little time in Glen Canyon and the slick rock country, Berger's "There Was a River" takes a permanent place close to you -- like rediscovering an old friend.

very personal and a good read

I got this book as a gift, having never heard of it before. I'd never heard of it before, but am a fan of southwestern stories and about Glen Canyon in particular. Contrary to what I expected from the title, it's not just about the author's experiences rafting the Glen Canyon of the Colorado River. In fact, it's a collection of many essays covering about 30 years of his life in the desert southwest.The essays are very personal and fairly emotionally charged. And yet, I didn't get turned off, because the author has a very conversational tone. There's lots of humor in here too, mainly in his descriptions of the strange people he's met in the desert. All in all, it was an easy and delightful read.The first essay (which is where the book gets its title) alone is worth the price of the book, but I highly recommend reading the whole thing. And here's something that REALLY made reading the story about the Glen Canyon rafting trip a special treat for me. ...