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2 6 8 W A L 3 4 ( 2 ) SUMMER 1 9 9 9 fishing; Gordon has been adrift for six years, out of touch with his step­ father, and has now returned with his bride. The narrator and Gordon’s day of fishing lengthens into a dark evening, but they reach their takeout spot safely. Having re-established some common ground, Gordon apologizes and confesses his fears of impending fatherhood. The book’s final story, “Mighty Mouse and Blue Cheese from the Moon,” first published in The Tall Uncut, combines elements of these previous two stories, as a young married couple, familiars on the Missouri River above Great Falls, lose a bit of their cus­ tomary levity as they face the change of becoming parents. Other stories deserve mention. One, “My Sister’s Hood,” proclaims the cockiness of high school seniors, while “For the Kid’s Sake” is a mostly comic vehicle in which a narrator who likes to curse assesses anew his fishing buddy who has brought his son along through some tough terrain. In “Trying to Be Normal,” a father and his two sons fish for paddlefish in eastern Montana, the older son struggling to absorb his mother’s death which has occurred about a year earlier. In “Grayfish,” two adult brothers fish for Arctic grayling in a high Montana lake; one, John, is deaf, and through their friendly competition Fromm offers a delicate but solid story of love between brothers. Fromm wields his rod and places his line with assurance, as these sto­ ries resonate well beyond their common thread of fishing. I look forward to Fromm casting into even deeper waters. Writing Down the River: Into the Heart of the Qrand Canyon. Photogr. and prod, by Kathleen Jo Ryan. Foreword by Gretel Ehrlich. Flagstaff, Ariz.: Northland Publishing, 1998. 160 pages, 100+ color photos, $29.95. Reviewed by Tom Lynch New Mexico State University The Grand Canyon is one of the most transformative places on Earth. Even the casual tourist posing for snapshots on the rim is changed, if ever so slightly, by being in its presence. How much more so, then, are those who venture into its heart. Over the course of the summer of 1997, fifteen women writers, includ­ ing such well-known authors as Denise Chavez, Linda Ellerbee, Linda Hogan, Annick Smith, and Ann Zwinger, floated down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. They didn’t travel together but went as guests on separate commercial tours; their accounts of their experiences have been brought together in this collection. Some, like Ann Zwinger, were veteran river rats. Many of the others, however, were neophytes plunged into their whitewater baptism. Photographer Kathleen Jo Ryan envisioned the project and arranged for the fifteen women to journey the river. Her photographs make a valiant attempt at the impossible: to capture in pictures the color and vast space of B o o k R e v i e w s 2 6 9 the Grand Canyon and the surge and tumble of a whitewater journey. In spite of their different backgrounds, nearly all of the writers discuss their fears, suggesting an empowering vulnerability when they give them­ selves to the river. It is difficult not to think that gender is a factor in these women’s willingness to reveal their anxieties, at times bordering on terror, as they embark on the river. Linda Ellerbee’s essay, for example, which addresses her recent bout with breast cancer, celebrates the desire to live life to its fullest, and the inevitable fear that accompanies such a commitment when it extends beyond touted cliché to actual manifestation. “I am frightened of the rapids,” she admits, “even before I see one” (18). Her essay, like many of the others, is a meditation on overcoming fear for the sake of living a life in full engage­ ment with the world in all its wildness. Not the least of the book’s contributions is its inclusion of diverse voices. It includes two African American, one Chicana, and one Native American author. African American Evelyn White begins with the admis­ sion that “my trip to the Grand Canyon was the most recent step I’ve...

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