Reached the Pacific! On to the Next!

I finished River Horse this week, as predicted.  The last part was a bit anti-climactic, though, and perhaps deliberately so.  Once Heat-Moon and crew reached the Columbia River, there were few challenges other than to stick with it to the end, and that's kind of the way I felt about the book.

Curiously, Heat-Moon tells us more about himself at the end, especially his trouble with keeping a relationship going.  He even hints that he is emotionally reserved, possibly the reason he had two failed marriages.  It was an odd part of the book.  After reading through all those pages of physical description, I didn't really want to know all that personal information, especially because it puts him in a rather bad light. I wanted to go on thinking of him as a great adventurer, not as an emotional cripple running away from relationships.

Oh, well.  I may decide to read his Blue Highways at some point; it's the one of the four books by him that I don't own.  I have PrairyErth, but have not read beyond the first couple of chapters.  That one is also on my list.  I see from looking at Heat-Moon's Amazon.com page that he's written another travel book, published in 2008, Roads to Quoz, about looking for the peculiar in America.  He takes his wife (third?) along on that one, so maybe he got a clue about relationships after his river journey "flattened" (as he puts it) his second marriage.

When I finished River-Horse, I returned to the Dick Francis novel I was reading, Crossfire, co-authored by his son, Felix.  (I sometimes wonder how much Dick got involved with writing in the last few years of his life.) Felix is as talented as his father, it seems, and will surely continue the Francis tradition of writing compelling mysteries about the horsey set.  Crossfire was a very good read--a complex plot involving an Afghanistan veteran who lost his leg in an IED explosion.  When he returns to England to reluctantly begin his civilian life, he finds he must rescue his horse trainer mother, whether she wants him to or not.  I recommend it highly, especially to Francis fans.

But what to read next?  I think this time I'll take another turn to the scholarly, and read a book I've been meaning to read for many years: The Signifying Monkey, by Henry Louis Gates, first published in 1988.  It's a book that attempts to help readers understand African American literature through understanding African American mythology and cultural roots.

You may know Gates from his PBS specials about genealogy, African American Lives and Faces of America.  You may also remember his dispute with the Cambridge police when he was arrested for trying to break into his own house. (See report here: Gates' arrest.)  Later, he and the police officer had a "beer summit" with Obama.

Though The Signifying Monkey will not be an easy read, I'm looking forward to delving back into lit crit.  Since I am currently watching the Ken Burns miniseries Jazz, I think Gates' book will add to my enjoyment of it. 

So stay tuned!