I bought this book after attending a reading by the author. Buck is a fascinating man and a compelling writer. I loved the blend of the now: creation of the boat, the characters who crewed it, the natural world and the commercial river traffic along with history: flatboats and their impact on commerce and western expansion, life along the river in the past two centuries and the little known aspects of more brutality towards slaves and indigenous people. ( )

I greatly enjoyed Rinker Buck's The Oregon Trail and quickly started Life on the Mississippi. At first I was confused and disappointed because the tone of the book was so different from the first. But as I read on, I liked Life more and more, in part because it is different from the Trail book. Mr. Buck seems to have a good time writing the story, and it gave him the opportunity to use the word "bumptious" which is a great joy.
The many family members of the Buck family are seldom mentioned. Nick, Rinker's companion on the trail, is not a visible part of this adventure. In Trail, Mr. Buck recalls his father and the many ways that irritating and impossible man helped teach self-sufficiency to his children. In Life, Rinker's mother is the family focus. Rinker had been her companion in the year or so before her death. He exaults in the way she redefined herself as an independent adult woman after her many children left the nest.
I am curious why Nick doesn't come along on the boat ride. Is he unhappy at the way Rinker portrayed him in Trail? I don't think Nick was treated badly in Trail, but it's always hard to guess how family members will respond to anything. Sibling history plays a big role.
This book is much less about technology than Trail because a flatboat has fewer moving pieces than a mule-drawn wagon. Old Man River, though, has a longer and more complex history than the Oregon Trail and Rinker, a compulsive historian, introduces us to it all. Westward expansion, cultural mixing, river industries, riverboat communities, the Indian clearances, slavery, and the Army Corps of engineers. There are a lot of tugboats in this book.

My only complaint about the text is that catfish don't jump, as anyone who follows the controversy about damming the Mekong can tell you.

I think you will like this book and, if you intend to read both books, I recommend that you read The Oregon Trail first. ( )

Travel log of shanty boat trip from Ohio River in Pennsylvania to Mississippi to New Orleans. Within travel log a history of US expansion to the "West" from the original colonies west to the Mississippi. Excellent adventure book full of river dangers and beauty as well as characters on the boat. Only one instance where author talks about meeting a person of color during the trip. A lot to learn about the beauty of US as well as its sad history of race relations. I learned about Kanawha salt mines that needed industrial labor and thus used slave labor. ( )

Life on the Mississippi: An Epic American Adventure by Rinker Buck is a travelogue drenched with history as we follow along with the author as he navigates the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. His boat was a classic, an authentic wooden American flat boat, of the type that was originally used to move goods, pilot these rivers, and open the American frontier.

As well as being an avid traveler, Buck obviously has a strong interest in history and was well able to pass along and reflect upon a number of fascinating tales of previous river adventures. I didn’t find this book quite as joyful as when he travelled west in a covered wagon but I believe he used this voyage to help process the recent death of his mother. This wasn’t an easy trip by any means as he and his crew had to constantly be vigilant for both natural and man-made obstacles as well as having to master navigating the river currents and moving around huge numbers of commercial barges, tugs and ships.

Overall I enjoyed Life on the Mississippi finding the trip fascinating. The author manages to convey some of the beauty that still exists along the banks of these rivers and weaves a fine tale that should appeal to both armchair travelers and anyone who is interested in American history. ( )

Rinker Buck had been reading about keelboats and flatboats and how they helped expand the United States. He decided he wanted to try to do the same thing--build his own flatboat then travel down the Monongahela, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers in it to New Orleans. He did and this is his story.

I was fascinated by this book. I wish I had been on that trip, but I know I do not have the skills to do it, but I loved being an armchair traveler with Rinker, his different crews, and Patience, his flatboat. I was interested in all aspects from building the boat to getting it to Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, to begin his journey.

I appreciated being taught something about navigating on the rivers by using the bridges and having to know what type of bridge it was so you knew which bridge you were traveling under. I loved the tales of the people he met along the route and their stories. I loved the warnings he was given about dying when he met certain parts of the river. It became a joke for him and his crew at those times.

The generosity of people he met was amazing--from food to ice to making anchors for his flatboat, and so many other things he needed as he went along his trip. I liked how he learned to work with the tugboat captains so that they helped him at times just as he helped them, and he stayed out of their ways. While some members of his crew were pains in the behind and were skittish about so much, he remained calm most of the time and did the right things at the right times.

I enjoyed reading of the times he had to navigate around other boats and how he navigated when rivers came together. Reading about how he made it through those confluences was exciting. I liked that he was always learning and trying to do what he thought was right. He managed to get to New Orleans without being pulled off the river as a nuisance.

I loved the history I learned as he talked about flatboats, slavery along the Ohio River, the Trail of Tears, how the towns around the rivers came to be, as well as what life along the rivers is today. I saw this country from a different point of view. I saw the isolation of these towns and understand why those people feel forgotten by the rest of the country and the government. I appreciated when he talked of getting behind the myths of the country and the rivers and finding out about them. So much of the history we are taught is myth. The reality is dirtier and uglier than we want to admit or learn about, but learning about it opens you up to see things through others' eyes. It was good to see it and learn about it and get recommendations to learn more about any of the topics he spoke of in the book.

As Mr. Buck says you have to do to learn the truth, to see behind the myths. Once you do, you are changed and don't see with the same eyes as before. I am so glad I read this book. I learned so much. It should be required reading for all. ( )