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master_wanderer 's review for:
This book is close to great. It oscillates between poetic, irritating, informative, and very compelling.
A quote on the front of my copy claims, "It would not be overblown to say The Emerald Mile deserves a spot on the bookshelf alongside such classics as Cadillac Desert, Desert Solitaire, and Encounters with the Archdruid..."(Durango Telegram). Yes, it is overblown to say that. The Emerald Mile is above average adventure reporting. It's not Desert Solitare. It's not even close.
Fedarko does this...thing that I think comes from a history of writing for magazines. So many of his page breaks end with a completely unnecessary and completely hyperbolic cliffhanger. Here's some examples:
You can pretty much flip to any page and find one. Is this a consequence of writing clickbait for Outside Magazine or something? I don't know but I find it grating. It's literally never useful. You could find every pagebreak and just delete the preceding line and you wouldn't miss any content.
Futhermore, some of these are just...wrong! Take this one:
"The consequences of this, however, were about to be demonstrated to them in the most graphic manner imaginable" (pg 255)
Spoilers - One person ends up drowning. Really Kevin!? That's "the most graphic manner imaginable"??? You must have a horrible imagination. He does this dumb clickbait thing again at the end:
"The Emerald Mile had not broken the speed record. She had smashed it to pieces..." (pg 326). .
So...What you mean is that the Emerald Mile HAD broken the speed record. This sentence is just incorrect and such Buzzfeed shit.
My other contention is that this book is just poorly named. It's a sweeping history of the Colorado River and the Glen Canyon Dam, first and foremost. Then it's partially a history of river running. Only then is it "The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History...". If you pulled out the sections related to The Emerald Mile you'd be left with maybe 40 pages. Out of 300+.
A quote on the front of my copy claims, "It would not be overblown to say The Emerald Mile deserves a spot on the bookshelf alongside such classics as Cadillac Desert, Desert Solitaire, and Encounters with the Archdruid..."(Durango Telegram). Yes, it is overblown to say that. The Emerald Mile is above average adventure reporting. It's not Desert Solitare. It's not even close.
Fedarko does this...thing that I think comes from a history of writing for magazines. So many of his page breaks end with a completely unnecessary and completely hyperbolic cliffhanger. Here's some examples:
"This, as he was about to discover, was a terrible mistake" (pg 76)
"He was shocked by what he found" (pg 77)
"And in a single stroke, everything changed" (pg 137)
"Once again, the river was about to prove them all wrong" (pg 226)
"What he did not know...was that deep inside the canyon...a monster had awakened..." (pg 241)
You can pretty much flip to any page and find one. Is this a consequence of writing clickbait for Outside Magazine or something? I don't know but I find it grating. It's literally never useful. You could find every pagebreak and just delete the preceding line and you wouldn't miss any content.
Futhermore, some of these are just...wrong! Take this one:
"The consequences of this, however, were about to be demonstrated to them in the most graphic manner imaginable" (pg 255)
Spoilers - One person ends up drowning. Really Kevin!? That's "the most graphic manner imaginable"??? You must have a horrible imagination. He does this dumb clickbait thing again at the end:
"The Emerald Mile had not broken the speed record. She had smashed it to pieces..." (pg 326). .
So...What you mean is that the Emerald Mile HAD broken the speed record. This sentence is just incorrect and such Buzzfeed shit.
My other contention is that this book is just poorly named. It's a sweeping history of the Colorado River and the Glen Canyon Dam, first and foremost. Then it's partially a history of river running. Only then is it "The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History...". If you pulled out the sections related to The Emerald Mile you'd be left with maybe 40 pages. Out of 300+.