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AFLOAT AGAIN, ADRIFT: THREE VOYAGES ON THE WATERS OF NORTH AMERICA; Aliform Publishing, 2006; By Andrew Keith (B.A. ’82)

The three remarkable journeys are braided together, their chapters alternating as Keith guides the reader on a gentle spiral toward the coasts. The first trip, traveling the Mississippi by canoe, was made in 1977, when Keith was 19. A friend accompanied him from Lake Itasca to Iowa, and he was on his own after that. On the other two trips, he had a companion for the full length, and good thing—some of the portages would have thwarted even the hardiest solo traveler.

Perils abound on all three voyages—large waves, thunderstorms, brutal rapids, impenetrable fog, a May snowstorm, and fickle winds. Pesky creatures, from mosquitoes to black flies to polar bears, come on the scene; Keith’s canoe takes a four-mile trip one night without him; and on frigid Lake Superior, hypothermia is always lurking just below the surface.

Keith has a wilderness lover’s acceptance of natural dangers, and a dimmer view of the manmade ones. On the more industrialized waterways, he’s dismayed by the paper mills and nuclear facilities, falls ill after passing a large sewage plant, and is ever-vigilant for the wakes of ships and towboats. One particularly heart-pounding account of a too-close encounter with a barge is as engrossing as a scene from an action film.

For Keith, of course, the benefits outweigh the risks. He meets an amazing array of kind strangers, from a Canadian bear wrestler to a group of motorcycle buffs in a leaky yacht who give him a lift into New Orleans. After one evening of carousing with some Missourians, he writes: “We knew we wouldn’t see each other again, but it didn’t matter—for one afternoon we were many friends, and that is a vision of truth.”

Perhaps most enjoyable for Keith is the staggering beauty he finds in both the scenery and the fauna (eagles, beluga whales, even a swimming moose). As he and a companion pitched their tent on the soft floor of a pine forest in Quebec, “we felt an absolute unity between ourselves and everything surrounding us. We were the circle. Life itself was sufficient— healthy, free, outside and in wild country.”

Despite some solid stories and evocative phrasings, Afloat feels under-edited, from the grammatical and spelling errors to the slow spots—not every unremarkable portage or bay, for example, deserves a mention by name. Still, if you’ve ever canoed or kayaked for an afternoon and wondered what it might be like to just keep going, Keith’s physical and emotional journeys offer inspiration. “I can think of no better way for young adults to discover their backyard and their inner selves than following any river downstream,” Keith writes—and he makes a compelling case.
—Jim Foti

Bookmarks

BlindSight
By Jane Toleno (B.A. ’97)
Singing River Publications (2006)
Toleno, who has been physically blind since birth, invites readers to enter into her world. In personal essays and poems, Toleno offers a generous telling of her personal history of dark, light, and blindness. In the process, she illuminates the vast territory of commonality shared by the sighted and unsighted, as well as the unique terrain of her life.

Minnesota Sports Almanac
By Joel Rippel (B.A. ’80)
Minnesota Historical Society Press (2006)
There may be no other single volume on earth that contains the history of the Minnesota Fillies, the scores of every Gopher bowl game ever played, and every first-round draft choice in Minnesota Vikings history. And those are just a fraction of the facts packed in the Minnesota Sports Almanac, a comprehensive tour of 125 years of professional, collegiate, and outdoor sports in Minnesota. Rife with fascinating sports trivia and full of great photos.

Next Places
By Harvey Sarles Syren
Book Company (2006)
Sarles taught anthropology for 20 years at the University of Minnesota before becoming a professor of cultural studies and comparative literature in 1987. This collection of meditations, born of Sarles’ questions about his own life choices, is meant to help others navigate transitions. Unexpected, sometimes quirky, and often pithy observations offer a road map for self-seekers and others interested in the larger questions of life.