The Run to Gitche Gumee

The Run to Gitche Gumee is pure Jones: an outrageous outdoor adventure heightened by ribald humor, violence, sex, pitch-perfect dialog, unforgettably eccentric characters, and a riveting plot.Part One opens as two boyhood friends on the cusp of manhood - Ben, who is about to go off to the Korean War, and Harry, who is college-bound to become a doctor - set off on the final adventure of their youth: a canoe trip down the Firesteel River to Lake Superior, also known as Gitche Gumee, or the Big-Sea-Water by the native Ojibwa. Armed with flyrods and shotguns, they plan to fish and hunt their way downriver, relishing their last blast of freedom in the great outdoors. But their idyllic ride becomes surrealistic - as unexpected encounters with millionaires, college girls, hipsters, and lunatics are by turns titillating, nerve-wracking and deadly.Part Two takes place fifty years later, when Ben and Harry, now confronting illness and marital strife, decide to recreate their canoe trip as a last hurrah. This time the bravado of youth is replaced with the wisdom of their years and the pains of their pasts. This time they have little left to lose. (5 3/4 x 8 1/2, 292 pages)


This two-part novel is pure Jones: an outrageous outdoor adventure accented by ribald humor, violence, sex, pitch-perfect dialog, unforgettably eccentric characters, and a riveting plot. Part One opens as two boyhood friends, Ben, who is about to go off to the Korean War, and Harry, who has begun college to become a doctor, set off to have the final adventure of their youth -- a canoe trip down the Firesteel River to Lake Superior, also known as Gitche Gumee, the Big-Sea-Water. Armed with flyrods and shotguns, they plan to fish and hunt their way downriver, relishing their last blast of freedom in the great outdoors.

Part Two takes place fifty years later, when Harry, a retired physician, is diagnosed with terminal cancer, and Ben contemplates the dismal state of his own failed life. The two decide to recreate their canoe trip as a last hurrah -- this time with the wisdom of years and the pains of the past informing their every paddlestroke.

This is Jones at his very best -- his wicked humor now tempered with the acute poignancy of the final stretch of the river of life.