The Whisper of the River

If you are unaware of the author Ferrol Sams, you are missing a true giant in American literature. This second book of the Porter Osborne trilogy is just as golden as Run With the Horsemen. More than just a coming of age novel, Sams provides intricate detail into young Osborne's life, feelings and thoughts. Quite moving and actually sad when you find the last page is near, you'll quickly want to open up When All the World Was Young (#3). Dr. Sams is still practicing medicine in Georgia and has given us a treasure in his writings. Well worth it to purchase not only this book, but all three since you will find yourself thinking about them often after you've experienced them.

This book is the second book in Ferrol Sams trilogy about the adventures of "The Boy", otherwise known as Porter Osborne, Jr.. I read through the first entitled "Run with the Horsemen" and was bowled over by the wit, charm, hilarity, and just plain engaging writing style of the author. The first book ended suddenly at an event around graduation from high school and "The Whisper of the River" picks up shortly after as Porter prepares to go to the college his distant but beloved father went to. The events in this book are written simply as they happen and are to be enjoyed on that level. You are basically the 'fly on the wall' as the brilliant backwoods farmboy goes to college in the late 1930s. His adventures range from poignant to side splittingly funny (and it is hard to make me laugh) in a seemingly random way, but anyone who has lived on campus for four years will 'understand'. Porter learns much in and out of the classroom that he never knew existed back on his family's farm in rural Georgia. His campus time starts in the fall of 1938 so the events leading up to World War II and the ending of The Great Depression play active roles.If "Run with the Horsemen" brought smiles and enjoyment to you, you will absolutely not want to miss out on Porter's further adventures. I didn't think the mule named 'Pet' incident in the first book could be topped for screaming, side-splitting laughter, but Ferrol has several incidents in "The Whisper of the River" that may put you in the hospital from laughing til it really hurts! Sams is not Faulkner, but this is no beach fluff either. You will be much better for the effort. Highly recommended.

Ferrol Sams' trilogy! I never thought Ayn Rand's 'Fountain Head' or 'Atlas Shrugged' could be topped but that was before I discovered Porter Longstreet Osborne, Jr. and Boston Harbor Jones. Now whatever will I do without them? Why hasn't a movie been made-------it could never do the books justice. One of my favorite lines referring to Vashti Clemmons.....'the one with the gorgeous body and the buck teeth she could have gnawed an apple through a knot-hole with'-- Thank you, Ferrol Sams for your delightfully entertaining stories and characters I will always remember.

Why schools still mandate that student plod through that old New England tale of Holden Caufield and his stuggles is beyond me. Sams writes a fresh energizing book devoid of the cynicism of Salinger. I'd rather my children experienced the joys and pains of Porter Osborne, Jr. Of course I have insisted they read the complete trilogy. However, it was something they wanted to do once started. Of the three Whisper is chronologically and artisyically the centerpiece. Our educational institutions should wake up and discover Porter and his journey to define himself

It's been over 10 years since I first read the book. Recommended by a fellow (presbyterian) clergyman, I looked at the jacket of the book he was showing me only to be stunned to realize that it was about a boy who attended the same college I attended, in a state far away. Not only that, but in reading the book, I discovered that I'd resided for a time in the same dormitory room, albeit several decades past the late 1930's. The book was painfully and poignantly real, from the descriptions of life in that particular dormitory room (I can see the room and scenery outside the windows even to this day) to life in Macon (some of the stories and experiences he went through were almost eerily familiar). Ferrol Sams is an incredibly gifted writer who I wish had started writing years earlier. His corpus of books, though relatively small, are all treasures and treasured. BTW, having graduated years earlier then a previous reviewer, let me point out that "Willingham University" was taken from what was then Willingham Chapel, not "Auditorium". It was during the 1970's that the former baptist church next door to Willingham Chapel was sold to Mercer and became the Newton Chapel at Mercer. At that point, Willingham Chapel became Willingham Auditorium.