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liberrydude's review against another edition
4.0
Both a mourning and a celebration of life: human, forest, and river. Immediately from reading the dedications the reader knows he or she is in for a heavy dose of melancholy. We meet three young teenagers whose lives were tragically ended in a plane crash after doing a flyover of a fire area in the Gila Wilderness. We meet an eccentric lookout who died with his horse in a fall. We meet the forest primeval which is burned summer after summer in increasing amounts of acreage. We meet one of the last unspoiled, untamed rivers of America that is being targeted for a dam. This at a time when dams are being destroyed in the American West.
So I guess it’s only natural that the author starts to die a little when confronted by all this loss. His marriage collapses. His hips fail. He gets prostatitis. But he soldiers on and produces this thoughtful and soulful commentary on man and nature and mortality. No stranger to loss having lost his brother to suicide( see his second book) Connors candidly chronicles his surrender to gloom and doom and his resurrection thanks to a new companion.
Connors is a survivor, a fighter, and an eloquent advocate for the Gila River. To dam that river would be a sacrilege. We need more people to sing a song for the river.
So I guess it’s only natural that the author starts to die a little when confronted by all this loss. His marriage collapses. His hips fail. He gets prostatitis. But he soldiers on and produces this thoughtful and soulful commentary on man and nature and mortality. No stranger to loss having lost his brother to suicide( see his second book) Connors candidly chronicles his surrender to gloom and doom and his resurrection thanks to a new companion.
Connors is a survivor, a fighter, and an eloquent advocate for the Gila River. To dam that river would be a sacrilege. We need more people to sing a song for the river.
orangecardboard's review against another edition
4.0
I feel this book wasn't meant for us. It seems mostly for Connors to understand the loss in his life and therefore is for his own or for the people directly referenced in the book. We are just there to know the facts and have a sense at the feelings. Without being connected to the victims or their families we can only imagine the distress caused in the crash that plays out in the pages.
Connors is a beautiful writer and he makes us feel the emotions, though his chop and change between various dates and events stops us from getting too involved in the facts.
I came to the book having thoroughly enjoyed Fire Season and had no idea how borderline morbid this would be. It's truly a sad piece of writing that connects with Connors and the land and his and others thoughts. But it's a good read that makes you think and experience loss and beauty in both humans and the land. I won't be in a hurry to read it again any time soon, but having read it just once I'm happy enough to take something away from it.
Connors is a beautiful writer and he makes us feel the emotions, though his chop and change between various dates and events stops us from getting too involved in the facts.
I came to the book having thoroughly enjoyed Fire Season and had no idea how borderline morbid this would be. It's truly a sad piece of writing that connects with Connors and the land and his and others thoughts. But it's a good read that makes you think and experience loss and beauty in both humans and the land. I won't be in a hurry to read it again any time soon, but having read it just once I'm happy enough to take something away from it.
robyn_m's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 stars // "A Song for the River" by Philip Connors (2018) touches upon death, life, love, fire and water. Lyrical and vulnerable. Highly recommended.
Connors works as a fire lookout in the Gila Wilderness of New Mexico. His previous [b:Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout|9341909|Fire Season Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout|Philip Connors|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1349010281s/9341909.jpg|14225258] was worthwhile. But this new book, a sequel of sorts, shows growth both as a writer and as a human.
page 30:
“…I vowed to finish the story of the fires in the mountains and the ashes in the watershed, braiding it together with stories of the river and the dead — their beauty and their grace, their passion and their purpose — and I would make an offering of the story in the hope it would touch others as they had touched me.”
page 36:
“Our brief acquaintance had revealed that her tolerance for macho bluster was the inverse of her capacity for solitude, and her capacity for solitude was as large as any I knew.”
page 94:
“For some forms of life, of course, wildfire signaled the end of the dance. For others it represented the first notes of a new song.”
page 101:
“Having more than once been called a tree hugger, I had chosen to ignore the derision implicit in the label and instead accept it as a thoughtful suggestion.”
page 151:
“Something will grow from this, even though the landscape looks bleak. Something, even now, is being triggered to flower from the ruins."
Connors works as a fire lookout in the Gila Wilderness of New Mexico. His previous [b:Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout|9341909|Fire Season Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout|Philip Connors|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1349010281s/9341909.jpg|14225258] was worthwhile. But this new book, a sequel of sorts, shows growth both as a writer and as a human.
page 30:
“…I vowed to finish the story of the fires in the mountains and the ashes in the watershed, braiding it together with stories of the river and the dead — their beauty and their grace, their passion and their purpose — and I would make an offering of the story in the hope it would touch others as they had touched me.”
page 36:
“Our brief acquaintance had revealed that her tolerance for macho bluster was the inverse of her capacity for solitude, and her capacity for solitude was as large as any I knew.”
page 94:
“For some forms of life, of course, wildfire signaled the end of the dance. For others it represented the first notes of a new song.”
page 101:
“Having more than once been called a tree hugger, I had chosen to ignore the derision implicit in the label and instead accept it as a thoughtful suggestion.”
page 151:
“Something will grow from this, even though the landscape looks bleak. Something, even now, is being triggered to flower from the ruins."
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