The River Quotes
"They loved how the darkness amplified the sounds—the gulp of the dipping paddles, the knock of the wood shaft against the gunwale. The long desolate cry of a loon. The loons especially. How they hollowed out the night with longing."
"It was beautiful and it scared them both. All the whitewater was ahead of them, and it would be much safer if the warmer days of late summer persisted."
"The clarity of the air was like putting on magnifying glasses: every trunk of every birch tree seemed to stand out against the backdrop of tamarack, of spruce."
"He thought of a Poe novel he had read in which the castaways are pulled toward the South Pole and the current they are riding gets warmer and calmer as they go."
"There was something satisfying in a cessation of paddling on smooth water. It was like watching a flock of ducks all stop beating at once and sail over a bank of trees on extended wings."
"What he loved about poetry: it could do in a few seconds what a novel did in days. A painting could be like that, too, and a sculpture."
"Few people had the luck to die in the prime of life in full appreciation of all the goodness therein."
"The rhythms, even the natural laws, of pedestrian life were suspended and he felt immediately uplifted."
"They’d shove the canoe into the current and head downriver, and the option of trying to find the couple, or whatever they were, and calling in a ride from their sat phone would be gone."
"They paddled hard, and with the wind they were at their previous camp in less than an hour."
"It’s near here," Jack said. "Where we heard them. This feels like it could have been the camp."
"Wynn bent to the sand between stones and picked up a hairclip, a blue metal barrette."
"Instinctively they moved inland toward the trees backing the beach and separated, each taking a different line."
"Her eyes were half open and swollen and her mouth worked but uttered no sound."
""I’m Wynn, this is Jack. We’re here to get you out of here.""
""Ready?" "Yep." "Okay, three, two, one…" And they rolled her."
"The fire cracked and popped and hissed, and when the wind eddied back toward the woods he could smell the smoke and it smelled like life."
"They paddled into the mouth of the outlet and felt the acceleration of the current."
"Like God held you in the palm of his hand or whatever."
"It sort of awed Jack. Sometimes, usually, it made him crazy."
"She was such a tenacious pain in the ass that Jack couldn’t help himself and became crazy fond of her."
"He remembered visiting Wynn’s family in Putney one time."
"Jack looked at the tent awash in firelight and thought that if that’s the way Wynn saw, or felt, the world, then he was very lucky."
"The universe cradled him, it cradled all beings, everything would work out."
"Scratch that, bite your tongue: like a log, like an angel."
"She was brilliant, too. She had read The Hobbit in three days."
"It was a gentle right bend and the long canoe appeared in the middle of it as if breached straight from the dark water."
"Fuck a duck," the fat man said, very clear. "It’s those kids. It’s you kids!"
"The short one’s got a gun," the thin one said.
"Brent. Remember me?" Fat Man shook one boy’s hand, then the other’s.
"I remember you! We shoulda listened. Man! We caught fire at sea like that destroyer, whatchamacallit?"
"That was waaay too close for comfort. Glad you-all—" He stopped short.
"You, too. That doesn’t look too good," he said with real concern.
"We got through the goddamned fire, and I mean that was nip and tuck."
"There was just two of you before," Brent said softly.