Old Glory

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What to expect

The author of Bad Land realizes a lifelong dream as he navigates the waters of the Mississippi River in a spartan sixteen-foot motorboat, producing yet another masterpiece of contemporary American travel writing.

In the course of his voyage, Raban records the mercurial caprices of the river and the astonishingly varied lives of the people who live along its banks. Whether he is fishing for walleye or hunting coon, discussing theology in Prairie Du Chien or race relations in Memphis, he is an expert observer of the heartland’s estrangement from America’s capitals of power and culture, and its helpless nostalgia for its lost past. Witty, elegiac, and magnificently erudite, Old Glory is as filled with strong currents as the Mississippi itself.

Critics Review

  • “Throughout this epic journey [Raban] struggles to reconcile the real, treacherous, protean river with the shimmering dream-waters of his boyhood. This is what gives his book its remarkable power, elevating it close to the level of myth.”

    Salman Rushdie

  • “Mr. Raban has a keen ear, but for the river itself he has to evince not only a keen eye but a capacity to use a painters palette. He gives us the strong brown god in all its rage, sullenness, and beauty.”

    Anthony Burgess

  • “Stunning…More successful than ninety nine percent of the books about America since de Tocqueville.”

    New York Times Book Review

  • “He can skewer life in an anecdote and evoke a river scene in a few brushstrokes.”

    The Nation

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