Two Books about Boats

Last updated on: February 5, 2021 at 8:00 am by Coyle Neal

Two Books about Boats 2021-01-29T14:42:12-07:00 Coyle Neal

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I am a landlubber. Oh sure, I grew up in a house less than a football field’s length from a river that we spent hours swimming in every summer; that I crossed regularly horseback in the Spring and Fall; and whose ice I drove loads of hay and grain across in the winter. But I’m still a child of the mountains in the West, and I suspect I will always be more comfortable with my feet on the ground than with all that sketchy water under them. That said, Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) and John Graves’s Goodbye to a River have both made me wonder whether a boat trip might not be kind of fun.

Image: Picryl

Not that I’d want to travel with the gentlemen in Jerome’s classic–they sound exhausting. Though to be fair, British humour really ain’t my cup of tea in the first place. No doubt that’s a moral failing on my part. Still, going on a boat trip up the Thames (or better yet: down the Thames) sounds like it could be fun. At least it sounds fun while I’m sitting at home in a comfortable chair drinking a cup of coffee with a stack of books next to me. I suspect the reality would be much less fun. Because even though I grew up in the mountains in the rural West, I’m really not much of an outdoorsman.

I’m also not entirely sure I’d want to go on a boat trip with John Graves, were he still with us (not that Jerome K. Jerome is still with us either–or ever was in the form in the book, for that matter). He certainly sounds less exhausting, but I’d probably spend the whole time wondering whether he actually wanted me there, or was just being polite biding his time until he could get back to reminiscing about stories he had been told in his youth about things that happened along the Brazos.

Both of these books are about rivers steeped in their own pasts. In Jerome’s book it is a past leveraged for farce, while in Graves’s book it is a past woven inseparably into the present. While Graves does not sugarcoat the bloody history of Texas (particularly the conflict between the Native Americans and American settlers), the undertone of the book makes clear that the proposed dams on the Brazos will erase not just the past but the living heart of the present as well.

This is something I had to wrestle with a bit. The river I grew up next to certainly doesn’t have the same historical depth as the Thames, but it doesn’t even really have the same historical depth as the Brazos. My family moved to the river in the early part of the 20th century. A single generation before that the Native American Tribe that had claimed the land (or been given it as part of their Reservation grant, or both, I’m not sure which) had been resettled by the government elsewhere and replaced by a different tribe (which had its own claim to the land, albeit an older and historically sketchy one). Whatever history the land had before the mid-19th century is lost. That doesn’t mean nothing ever happened there (obviously there were people present–things happened); but it means that a trip down the river with someone knowledgeable about the area is going to result in a narrative of mostly 20th-century goings-on.

All of which shows the relative youth of the American West, even compared to other parts of the US. This raises questions about everything from identity (God has made us to be beings who live in places, which of course He also made) to rootedness to stewardship. I don’t have answers to these questions, and I’m not even sure I can clearly articulate the questions themselves. But at least having read these books I know more clearly that the questions exist. I know that it matters that I grew up on the river in Montana and not the Brazos or the Thames, or even the one nearest to where I live now. Again, just how it matters merits further consideration. Consideration I’d encourage you to undertake as well, not least by picking up and reading Goodbye to a River and Three Men in a Boat.

Dr. Coyle Neal is host of the City of Man Podcast and an Associate Professor of Political Science at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO

Biography

Books

humor

Previous Post

February 2, 2021

Common Grace, 2.22

Next Post

February 9, 2021 Common Grace, 2.23

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Action AFI Top 100 Animation Best Picture Winner BFI Top 250 Biography Biopic Books Childrens Christian Classics Classics Comedy Crime Documentary Drama Editor's Choice Family Fantasy Fantasy Films Foreign Historical Historical Fiction History Horror Horror IMDB Top 250 Indie Memoir Modern Novel Musical Mystery Non-Fiction Oscars Philosophy Poetry Popular Literature Reading and Writing Reality Romance Science Fiction Science Fiction Silent Sports Thriller TV Show Uncategorized Western Westerns Young Adult

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 June 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?"

Select your answer to see how you score.

Nathanael Peter Pilate John the Baptist