Rebbie's Reviews > Deliverance

Woo hoo, my last book of 2016, and boy was it a doozy! What a fantastic way to end the year. :)

This book is about 4 suburban men who spend the weekend river rafting and hunting deep within the mountains of Georgia. They meet some hillbillies, horrible things happen, and then they spend the rest of the weekend in a race to survive the brutal elements of the wilderness, as well as trying to survive against enemies who were born and raised in those mountains. The enemies have the advantage of knowing the river, woods and mountains like the back of their hand.

I could wax philosophical about the underlying meanings of this book: man versus nature, alpha males, the primal instinct to survive at all costs, the shame that accompanies the fear of death in masculine souls (especially when witnessed by other men). Oh, and the biggie: how emasculation or the fetishization of emasculation is the root cause of every single sexual dysfunction or sexually deviant and repugnant behavior in the entire world.

But I won't, because that would take too long. We could spend days discussing this book, and the ideas behind it, so let's skip that altogether.

James Dickey's prose was simple and to the point, and I love him for that! It caused the story to provide such vivid imagery. I felt like I was right there, like I could feel the Cahulawassee River raging around the men whenever it felt like it.

What a ride this book is, especially with the suspense it offers, and the superb way Dickey shows just how vulnerable we are to nature and the unknown, and how we're at the mercy of other people.

Luckily, most people are decent. At least for now.