River Teeth

When DJD writes about a game of catch the ball burns my hand thru the mitt. When his story is about wading up a trout stream, my neck gets hot from the sun on it, I can hear the mosquitos whine, and my feet go numb from the cold water. He writes books that I could live in and I don't even play baseball. Or fish.

I was a hitch-hikn' looking for Sissy out there somewhere and along comes this book with the upside down fish-hook on it and I finally had the term for my favorite piece of women's clothing (i.e. 'the upper tenth of a pair of levis').Ten years later I was having babies and was reading The Brothers K with my son asleep on my chest.Now, well beyond that divorce, I find "home" in David's stories in River Teeth. His attention to me not his characters is extremely evident through his writing. I can still get chills up my spine just thinking about that Oregon concert when the lightning and thunder peeled...

On a long trip up and down the west coast I picked this book up in a shabby bookstore in the hills of San Francisco on a lonely rainy night. It gave me a strange and warm comfort as I battled my way through the vicous rain for the last two weeks of my trip. The book is erre in ways I cannot explain, simply because you read it and understand it so well. Everything Duncan describes has been a part of all our lives somewhere, somehow. This book deeply moved me, and though I was mearly 16 on that rainy night I can never escape the vivid imagery of Duncan's voice.

River Teeth is a richly woven and intricate collection of short works. Duncan's writing is thick like poetry; his words are delictible. River Teeth explores the beauty of life through glimpses of nature, family, and human spirituality. Duncan is my favorite author and this is my favorite book.

I read these stories several years ago. I still refer to many of them often in conversations. I particularly liked "Her Idiots", "Giving Normal the Finger" and "The Garbage Man's Daughter". Any time I am around a stream or river, including recently with a group in New Zealand, I tell people about Duncan's book and story "River Teeth". Then I go on to praise his other books, particularly THE RIVER WHY. Great writer! Great writing!