River Time

Those who know me are not surprised that I'd review such a book...  FYI, I've been feeling a lot better this week! 

Mary A. Hood, River Time: Ecotravel on the World’s Rivers (Albany, NY: State University of New York, 2008), 276 pages including an index, bibliography and some photos.

“American literature is full of rivers. Indeed, the world’s literature is full of rivers, and rivers are more than just background; they are an essential element of our stories. Our most ancient stories are deeply entangled in rivers… That our earliest civilizations emerged on rivers reflects a broader truth: rives spawn civilization. Because of our deep roots in rives, because rivers provided sustenance and facilitated travel, they are one of our strongest connections to and precious elements of place.” (page 1-2)

The above is from the introduction to Mary Hood’s collection of essays centering on rivers of the world. In each essay, Mary explores a particular river, often examining something unique about it. On the Cumberland River, she explores the idea of “co-evolution” between beetles and magnolia trees and how, instead of being a “survival of the fittest,” the two species have grown together and depend on their relationship with the other. (43) In the Amazon, she discusses “green washings” and how tourism has grabbed a hold of the “green” concept as a marketing campaign.  “Ecotourism” is now big business. (138) However, as she later notes, tourism is the largest industry in the world, counting for over 700 million jobs. (227). A part of me questions this figure; it seems to be that if tourism is considered an industry, so is agriculture and it should be larger. Also, in the Amazon, she explores the healing properties of many plants native to the region, but then notes the irony of the high mortality rate among humans in such areas. (103) As she travels these rivers, she’s on the lookout for birds and unique trees and fish. In China, she looks at the nation attempting to meet the needs of its expanding population. 1/12th of the world’s people live along the Yangtze River. (192) Along the Ganges, she wrestles with the contradictions of India (225) and in Egypt, ponders the ancient civilization that grew up along the Nile and gave us the most ancient text in existence. (241)


I enjoyed these essays. About half of the book deals with smaller rivers in America such as the Conhocton where she questions the economics of windmill farms (58-9), the Alligator in Northeast North Carolina where she encounters wolves, owls and swans (81) or the Penobscot in Maine where she set out to learn about moose. (61f) In the second half of the book, she sets her sights on the mighty rivers of the world: the Mississippi, Danube, Yangtze, Ganges and the Nile. Most of the essays are short; many are half-dozen pages or so, allowing the reader to pick up and read an essay and sit it down and thereby savor the book. Hood’s essays combine the eyes of a scientist and artist and the mind of a philosopher and economist. I recommend this book, but wish more rivers had been explored. Missing was the mighty Congo, the Tigris and Euphrates, all mighty rivers in their own right, but also rivers that because of the political situation would have been more dangerous to explore. Also missing was the Mekong, a river that I’ve been reading a lot about lately.