Rating: 
Summary: Too Preachy
Review: Duncan's style is a little too cynical and preachy for my taste. As a reader, I didn't feel like there was any chance for reciprocity; to accept or reject his way of thinking. As such, he lost me. In my opinion, better enviromental/fly fishing writing can be found in the work of McGuane, David Quammen, and anthologies such as "Wild 'bows & Crippled Duns."
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Summary: Stereotypical, obvious, pompus
Review: Duncan's textbook rants are so predictable I found myself mouthing the next sentence before I read it. As someone who's work and life is submerged in environmental, water use, and preservation issues I find this type of stereotypical ranting more detrimental to the issues that concern me than most G.W. policies. Duncan preaches to the choir, but his preaching is so over the top it is a turn-off. While I agree with virtually every theme and policy he promotes, his pompus diatribes push me in the other direction. If this book were written 40 years ago it might strike a radical tone and inspire action. In these times it is merely a rehash of the new-age mumbo-jumbo that is so easy for the opposition to tear down. This book will apeal to two audiences: new-age sheep, and right-wingers looking to bash environmentalists. The rest will find it harder to wade through than Columbia.
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Summary: Henry Bugbee
Review: For those who are interested in the life and teaching of Henry Bugbee, Duncan's account of Henry's last days makes this book worth reading.
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Summary: Druidic Rants and Other Joys
Review: I am an unabashed fan of David James Duncan. Since I discovered "The River Why" 15 years ago, I have shared the sheer delight of his writing with everyone who would listen. This time Duncan chooses nonfiction. Part autobiography, part conservation plea, part apology and part explanation, he is always articulate and passionate. Take his explanation for the importance of the endangered Stillwater Marsh on the Truckee River: "Let me stress the Stillwater's importance in a storyteller's way: "Imagine running in one of the great American marathons. Or, if you're in the kind of shape I'm in, imagine jogging, then walking, and in the end possibly crawling to the finish line of an American marathon. Whatever your condition, by the time you reached the finish line you'd be in dire need of fluids, food and rest. Stillwater Marsh - for waterfowl and shorebirds enduring the marathon we call migration - is one such finish line. But now imagine that, after giving your all for twenty-six miles, you're greeted by a sign that reads: "SORRY. WE'RE FRESH OUT OF FLUIDS, FOOD AND REST AREAS HERE. YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO RUN ANOTHER TWENTY-SIX MILES TO ANOTHER FINISH LINE. MAYBE THEY CAN HELP YOU THERE." We've all read of the importance of wildlife refuges. Duncan puts it in terms that any high school athlete can understand. Self-deprecating, faintly amusing, but crystal clear. Passionate but not shrill. But this book is more than an exceptionally articulate set of essays in support of conservation. It's also a glimpse into the personal life of the author. Few autobiographers can be honest and complete. Katherine Graham comes to mind. Even fewer authors. From his youth, to his first book, to his reasons for leaving his beloved Oregon coast, to his move to Montana. It's all laid out with painful honesty. I wish Duncan would write more. "The Brothers K" and "River Teeth" were a long time coming. But "My Story as Told by Water" was worth the wait.
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Summary: A rant by any other name
Review: I found much too much rant in the first 2/3 of the book and would have put it down except we agreed to read it for a book group. Unless you are a really ardent environmentalist willing to lay your life down pass this up for something more balanced and sensible.
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Summary: GRATE BOIK
Review: I LIKE DAVID'S USE OF FICTION BETTER TO PROMOTE HIS ENVIRONMENTALIST IDEAS AND ALTHOUGH THIS IS AN EXCELLENT BOOK I MUST SAY I PREFER HIS FICTION....THANKS DAVID FOR A GREAT BOOK AND ENLIGHTENING ME ON THE TROUBLES OF SALMON....ONCE AGAIN I LOVE YOUR WRITING STYLE... ROD FOSTER
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Summary: Experience the Sublime Wild and the Thrill of Connection.
Review: I love reading and I love books.This is one of the finest books I have ever read...and one of the most important. Duncan's writing brings me right back in touch with my Pacific Northwest roots, and the wild places and creatures I so cherish. He manages to articulate in words the spiritual dimension of wilderness encounters that are so rare in a world that is dominated by modernity and profit-motive. Yet he points a way to recover crucial aspects of dissappearing wild. He captures and articulates in fine detail, that which links the human encounter of the wild with something much greater than humanity alone: the creative Force that results in this whole connected planet Earth.
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Summary: Oh my!
Review: I'm only twenty pages into this book and blown away by it. Oh, the clarity and passion with which this man writes! The River Why annoyed me a bit with its religous overtones--this one simply amazes me. Yes, buy it.
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Summary: My Story As Told By Water
Review: My Story As Told By Water by David James Duncan was a confusing and overly political way to express the author's love for water. HIs diliverey is good, but he should keep in mind that his readers are reading for entertainment, not to hear about our government's poor decisions.
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Summary: Duncan writes with heart.
Review: My Story as Told by Water covers a varied terrain ranging from environmental activism to the virtues of fly-fishing without a hired guide. The book is really a collection of essays (many published in other books and periodicals) about rivers in the Northwestern United States. Duncan shares much of his early life growing up in neighborhoods just beyond the growing tentacles of Portland, Oregon. He writes openly about this family, including his bitter confrontation over the war in Vietnam with his dad, and the loss of his brother. Given such a backdrop, it's easy to understand how Duncan turned to the solitude of fishing local streams to deal with the pain of his youth. Later in the book, Duncan finds his stride writing about the not-so-bright outlook facing wild salmon along the Columbia and Snake Rivers. You can almost feel the tears welling up in his eyes as he describes their near exit from his world. He sums up the disaster of the salmon run on the Snake River this way: "The babble of `salmon management' rhetoric has taken a river of prayful human yearning, diverted it into a thousand word-filled ditches, and run it over alkali. When migratory creatures are prevented from migrating, they are no longer migratory creatures: they're kidnap victims. The name of the living vessel in which wild salmon evolved and still thrive is not `fish bypass system,' `smolt-deflecting diversionary strobe light,' or `barge.' It is River." Duncan opens his heart to the connections he has to rivers and wild fish. But more importantly, he gives us inspiration for making our own connections to those wild places.
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