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Liked It “Every time I look at a river, I think of Mark Twain and his adventures on the Mississippi. His writing, always funny and warm, tells us first of the history and stories of his beloved river, and then of his experiences learning the steamboat trade. I found his description of being a steamboat...” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It “Not the best audiobook for my commute. It required more attention than I could give it and my mind kept drifting off. Had to pull out after 6 discs. But I appreciated what little history and ambience I got about the steamboat culture and the Mississippi River.” see full review » see other reviews » |
Newest Reviews
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“Fictionalized account of Twain's early life on the Mississippi that shows a way of life that doesn't seem to exist, when the waterways were the major lifeblood of the region.”
Amy M wrote this review Tuesday, September 16 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Not the best audiobook for my commute. It required more attention than I could give it and my mind kept drifting off. Had to pull out after 6 discs. But I appreciated what little history and ambience I got about the steamboat culture and the Mississippi River.”
Salsabrarian wrote this review Wednesday, September 10 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Every time I look at a river, I think of Mark Twain and his adventures on the Mississippi. His writing, always funny and warm, tells us first of the history and stories of his beloved river, and then of his experiences learning the steamboat trade. I found his description of being a steamboat student very similar to being a medical student: two-hundred years later and in completely different trades, route memorization and gradual responsibility for people’s lives still have much in common. This book made me want to travel the Mississippi, not as it stands today but as it appeared to Twain in his youth. I feel the same way about Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his Magdalena river. I think it is amazing how these inspired authors can make me love a river I have never seen”
Jamie E wrote this review Thursday, July 17 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Eh, okay. Opens the reader's eyes to the southern lifestyle.”
Andrea G wrote this review Thursday, May 29 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Twain can use his wit to make any subject fun. I didn't expect this book to be as good as it was. ”
Amanda L wrote this review Sunday, February 10 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I read it in French. Awesome!”
Pierre E wrote this review Thursday, January 3 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“If you are fascinated by the Mississippi River, steamboats, or the Old West, read this amazing memoir of Twain's formative days as a steamboat pilot. Actually, scratch that--I don't care what you're interested in, you should read Life on the Mississippi anyway--it's that good. Episodic in nature, it covers river towns, gambling, yellow fever epidemics, steamboat explosions, the dangerous, changing nature of the Mississippi, and the gritty personalities of the steamboat pilots and captains. With experiences like these, no wonder Twain turned Huck Finn into a masterpiece.”
Johnny Waco wrote this review Sunday, December 30 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“my first taste of twain's wonderful prose.
oiseau_blanc wrote this review Sunday, September 30 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
playful yet sombre, and never boring!!”
“I read Life on the Mississippi as an undergrad, and I taught snippets from the beginning to freshmen, but I had never read this wonderful book while on a steamboat. We were traveling from Cincinnati to St. Louis, reading about young Twain traveling with dreams of becoming a steamboat pilot, from Cincinnati to St. Louis, and then onto New Orleans. The setting made rereading this book almost a perfect experience for me. I could read Twain's descriptions of sunrise on the water, and see it. Read his descriptions of the sound of birds in trees along the shore, and really hear them, read about how hard it was to learn to read the water, know the river, and see what he was talking about. The book is a memoir that tells of Twains dream to be a pilot, what he has to learn, the dangers of the boats and the river, and the wide variety of people who traveled on steamboats. The second half of the book is a series of essays after the Civil War, which ended the steamboat boom. Twain revisits the people, the cities, the life on the river twenty years later. Much of what he writes seems eerily modern, as in his descriptions of Mississippi floods and what can be done to mitigate such natural/manmade disasters. The chapters are short, but the writing is long on wisdom and humor.”
sthurner wrote this review Monday, July 23 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
