290 reviews for:

Is a River Alive?

Robert Macfarlane

4.4 AVERAGE

hoppie's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

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i am rivered. 

hope_lee's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging informative inspiring medium-paced

allysonhallman's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous informative reflective medium-paced

vrhayes08's review against another edition

4.0

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deedireads's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous informative inspiring slow-paced

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This was my first book by Robert Macfarlane, but it absolutely won’t be my last. I’m so excited to have an entire backlist of his full of nature writing of this caliber, holy smokes.

Is a River Alive? is part travelogue, part journalism, part essay, and (dare I say it) part poetry, chronicling the author’s journey along three rivers. One is in Ecuador, one is in India, and the last is in Canada. He wonders at the power of rivers and examines the idea of personhood in service of the “Rights of Nature” movement, in which activists fight to earn natural entities like rivers the same legal rights and protection as people (or corporations).

If you love nature writing, you simply must read this, and you must not rush it. Macfarlane’s prose is sumptuous and his sense of wonder is palpable. The introduction, especially, flows like poetry, begging to be read aloud — and while this would get exhausting if he’d attempted to sustain it for a whole book, he brings it back in just the right moments and quantities.

Pair this with the novel There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak and go read it by a river. You’ll thank me.

adrianzm's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

stacieh's review against another edition

adventurous informative reflective slow-paced

kakennedy76's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

betsypies's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

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Informative and vividly written, especially the third story centered around the Mutehekau Shipu.
I’m a big fan of Macfarlane’s other books and count Underland as one of my favorite nonfiction titles, but I found the characters and vignettes slightly less compelling in this book (and the writing a bit more sentimental). As with his other writing, there are sections and images that will stay with me for a long time. In Is A River Alive, for example, I love the exercise in the prologue: Macfarlane asks the reader to visualize their home with the land blacked out, the bodies of water pulsing in color. We all depend on and live near water. The book’s undertaking is an urgent one and the ideas well worth considering.

halleyglier's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced