River Odyssey: A Story of the Colorado Plateau

Every once in a while a book sneaks into your life and nothing is ever quite the same again. It happens when you least expect it and later you are hard-pressed to remember how or why you choose that particular book...or did it choose you? This is such a book. At first blush this appears to be a book about one man's exploration of the Colorado Plateau in general and the Colorado River in particular. To the knowledgeable reader that topic alone would not be all that unusual in the literature of the West, unless it was done in an extraordinary manner...a really extraordinary manner. This one is, and more. Callahan is of the very few writers that have a real attachment to life and the environment and can write about it in an honest,convincing and readable way. For example,his ability to convey his passion for the Colorado River has enabled me to better understand Norman Maclean's statement "I am haunted by waters." The author begins his odyssey at the headwaters of the Colorado River in the Never Summer Range of Colorado and ends in northern Mexico in a salt desert among "...human garbage and human faith." In a series of essays and poems the reader visits such towns as Green River and Moab, UT; Monument Valley; the San Rafael Swell; the Grand Canyon; Mexico and every conceivable spot in-between including a number not on any map. It is a seven year journey like no other you have ever encountered. In a humorous, vibrant, poetic manner he takes the reader on a virtual guided tour of the Colorado Plateau with its rich compliment of people, wilf life and landscapes all affected, in one way or the other, by the River. Callahan says like much of the desert southwest he is "watermarked" and, when he explains one of the reasons he feels that way, which date back to his childhood, you will understand his liquid obsession...natural and otherwise. He talks about friends, past and present, growing old, women, erlationships with his children, ex-wives, and other things that matter in an open, non-judgmental manner that is refreshing and, at times, painful and brutally honest. Consider this passage: "I've come to that point in my life where I can no longer recall the reasons I began most things, the point where all directions look the same, and every choice seems equally senseless. I drink too much, I play with myself too often, I eat like myocardial infarctions and colon cancer don't kill middle-aged men, and every morning I swear I'll change, but nothing ever changes. Except times in the desert, and especially except times in the desert near water."In a poetic tone and heartfult manner the reader is treated to one man's odyssey to quench his desire for solitude, friendship, and an understanding of life that is unflinching honest, at times irreverent, and always refreshing in its candor. If you like John Holt, T.H. Watkins, Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and Ivan Doing, this book is a must. It will sneak up on you and make you glad you took the trip.