BOOK 



MARKET 



Waves. Wind 

 and Water: 



Read Up a Storm! 



'inter days are such cozy, 

 comfortable times, at least indoors. The 

 leaves have fallen and a chill is settling 

 in, but inside are warm rooms and 

 firelight, and the companionship of 

 friends and family. It's easy to forget 

 how cold and perilous this time of year 

 can be, especially along the Outer 

 Banks with a bitter nor'easter howling. 



This year, add some zip to your 

 winter routine with these pulse- 

 racing reads. I've 



By Renee Wolcott Shannon 



selected books that celebrate nature's 

 wild side, bringing unseasonable thrills 

 and watery adventure right into your 

 living room. In these pages, you'll 

 witness North Carolina lifesavers' heroic 

 feats of strength and acts of bravery, feel 

 the brute force and screaming winds of 

 an Alaskan williwaw, and paddle raging 

 African rivers with fearless Whitewater 

 rafters — all from the comfort of your 

 favorite easy chair. 



So treat yourself to something 

 special this winter season: a book that 

 brings the outdoors in. 



The Lost River: A Memoir 

 of Life, Death and Transfor- 

 mation on Wild Water by 



Richard Bangs. 1999. Sierra Club 

 Books. Random House, Inc., 201 E. 

 50th St., New York, NY 10022. 266 

 pages. Hardcover, $25. ISBN 1- 

 57805-026-X. 



Armchair adventurers and 

 real-life thrill seekers will appreci- 

 ate Bangs' improbable autobiog- 

 raphy. With enviable determina- 

 tion, bald-faced lies and 

 depthless bravado, Bangs 

 transforms himself from an 

 average Maryland boy to 

 accomplished river guide, 

 tackling the fiercest rivers on 

 the planet. The Lost River 



focuses on his obsession with the virgin 

 waters of five tumultuous Ethiopian 

 rivers: the Awash, Omo, Baro, Blue 

 Nile and Tekeze. 



The narrative spans the years 

 between 1967 and 1996, following 

 Bangs as he progresses from weekend 

 paddling on the Potomac to rafting the 

 Colorado to plunging down the world's 

 wildest rivers. He is a man transfixed by 

 "the knowledge that the cosmos could 

 be reduced to a cool, wrapping white 

 wave, to the pull of an oar or the twist of 

 a tiller, to the crest of a wave" — by the 

 majesty and power of fast-moving 

 water. 



That wild power, of course, can 

 result in tragedy as well as transcen- 

 dence. In Ethiopia, Bangs loses two men 

 in fierce rapids, one of them a close 

 friend. The Lost River thus becomes 

 much more than an adventure story; it is 

 also a tale of one man's struggle with 

 loss and remorse, and of his final 

 reconciliation with the beautiful, 

 perilous sport that he loves. 



As you read, you'll share Bangs' 

 remarkable encounters, both in Africa 

 and closer to home. His dramatic style, 

 which ranges from lavishly embellished 

 to downright bombastic, makes his 

 expeditions as frothy on paper as they 

 were in reality. A fairly indicative 

 sentence: "He (a water buffalo) glow- 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 27 



