Old Glory

If you haven't read anything by Jonathan Raban, Old Glory is a good place to start. Raban's books fall into that uneasy space between autobiography, travel, history and philosophy that seem to define the late twentieth century travel genre - for example, his "Passage to Juneau" is not only about sailing the Inner Sound between Vancouver Island and the mainlaind, but about being divorced by his wife because he is for ever off sailing and writing books.
Old Glory draws its inspiration from a childhood fascination with the image of Huck Finn, on his raft, going down the Mississippi. As a grown man (if self-confessedly not a fully adult one), Raban "lights out for the terrority" in a utilitarian launch with an outboard motor - no raft for him. Sometimes the river is hauntingly empty, sometimes frightenly crowded with massive ferrys. It can be idyllic or life threating, with logs, eddys and boils of turbulent water to avoid. As ever, Raban meets people all along the way, well off, humble, even dirt poor, because while the river flows through America's prosperous heartland, it also flows through an alternative world of bums, bikers and old black guys fishing for catfish. Read this, and Raban and Old Glory will become friends to you, in the end you will dread the inevitable time when the river loses itself in the sea, and Raban turns back to losing himself in the crowd.
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Jonathan Raban, Old Glory, Picador, ISBN-0-330-29229-3

Article Author: tmulqueen

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