OLD MAN RIVER The Mississippi River in North American History

"It is a river of stories and a river of myth," Alan Sklar's deep voice intones early in Schneider's voluminous essay on the Mississippi River. Sklar's voice gives the writing a sense of poetry and authority, keeping the narrative going through myriad topics. Schneider's work includes a lot of research and quite a bit of personal observation from his own camping and visiting. He takes in everything from early Spanish and French explorers to the effects of fertilizer runoff today. Schneider loves the way words sound, thus giving Sklar a rhythmic narrative to work with. It's lengthy, as is the river, but listeners will enjoy the way the words flow. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2013]