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River Rogue
“The world of (RIVER ROGUE) is the world of the rivers down which the raftsmen brought their timber to the Darien market (in the late 1800s). The quality of this world—the aspect of the country, the sprees in the bars and dives, the cunning, viciousness, and honor of the rogues, the code of the raftsmen, who felt themselves set apart from other men—is rendered with a fine imaginative precision.” Robert Penn Warren, Saturday Review (1942)“Brainard Cheney tells all about (Snake Sutton) in his rip-snortin’, rootin’-tootin’ novel…Rarely will you encounter a book that plunges more deeply into a strange and specialized way of life…(Cheney) has a wild story to tell and a wild life to describe, and he does it with relish.” Orville Prescott, New York Times (1942)After the Civil War, 1870. Deep in the south Georgia river swamp forests. Ratliff Sutton, a young white boy, runs away from a broken home and grows up the adopted son of former slaves. In the swamps of the Ocmulgee and Altamaha Rivers, he transforms into Snake Sutton, mythic timber raftsman, struggling with mighty rivers, fighting both men and alligators, steering great log rafts to Darien by the sea. He confronts his greatest struggle—breaking into Darien’s timber merchant society. Forsaking China Swann, a “fancy lady” and his champion, Snake marries society belle Robbie McGregor. Fighting his way into the merchant ranks through hurricanes and murder, he moves beyond tragedy and into an awakening that summons him back to his roots upriver.BRAINARD CHENEY (1900-1990) grew up in Lumber City, Georgia, on the Ocmulgee River, deep in the piney woods of south Georgia. A fifth-generation Cheney, he descended from the earliest pioneers in this once remote area. Attending Vanderbilt University in the 1920s, he befriended Caroline Gordon, Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren and other members of the Fugitive and Agrarian literary movements.Cheney published four novels in his Lightwood, River Rogue, This is Adam and Devil’s Elbow. All derived inspiration from autobiographical events. He also published articles and produced plays. A Guggenheim Fellowship in 1941 facilitated his research and writing of the novel, River Rogue.A long-time newspaperman for the Nashville Banner, he became a well-known figure in Tennessee political circles. During the 1950’s, he served Governor Frank Clement and Senator Tom Stewart as speechwriter and political consultant.Cheney and his wife, librarian and author, Frances (Fannie) Neel, flourished in the literary circles of their time. They enjoyed a close friendship with Georgia author, Flannery O’Connor.His novels received critical acclaim when published and sold respectfully. The works stand today as shining time capsules bringing to life the lost world of the piney woods of south Georgia.
- GenresHistoricalFiction
530 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 3, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 24, 2024
Oh my, how can I review this book? I shall have to do it twice.
FIVE STAR: The setting, the topic, the characters—a book on my river, for crying out loud!—appeal to me like a dream I don’t want to wake up from. The mystical world of the Ocmulgee-Oconee-Altamaha, a waterway that in many parts looks the same today as it did in the 19th-century setting of this novel. And these log-raft men: I tell you, I was born in the wrong century! “Yes I am a [log-rafter], two hundred years too late. The [steamboats] don’t thunder, there’s nothing to [wander], I’m an over [thirty] victim of fate.” Yes, as much as I hate timber cutting in general, I would like to raft a load down to Darien. I would like that very much. Since I can’t, the next best thing is to read a novel about it. Thank you Brainard Cheney.
I also must compliment him on his research for this book. He lived with the raftsmen, rode on their flotillas, and interviewed them extensively. It shows. Cheney, a Lumber City native, knew this territory in a way that maybe no other storyteller ever has. And he’s not in-your-face about the research, either. He puts the facts in there, and catch them if you can. For instance, when these rafters say “paddle white” or “paddle Indian,” Cheney explains nothing. I would perhaps have read right past this had I not already known that the old rivermen referred to the east bank as “white” and the west bank as “Indian,” because for many years the river formed the boundary between the settlers and the tribes. There were many such terms all throughout this book, none of them explained. I like that. (I would equally like a heavily footnoted copy of this book, for educational purposes. Any doctoral candidates out there looking for a topic? Hop to it!)
THREE STAR: Far be it from me to criticize a man’s writing. This is a hard game to play, no doubt. Still, I wanted this book, being set in a locale so dear to my heart, to be, I don’t know, better. The dialect strikes me as overdone. The “n-word” wore me out after its hundredth use. The jumping of focus from one character to another in something of haphazard way was distracting. All this kept snatching me out of the dreamy enjoyment I wanted. I could get past all these, I think, but still would have run up against the most problematic trait of all: Cheney continually skips the story. Time and again he leads us (readers) to the big moment, the exciting thing, the plot point of greatest interest, and then ends the chapter. The next chapter (that is, the next sentence) then begins in a scene two months or two years later. Our hero, “Snake,” meets a girl, has some warm feelings, and next thing I know, they’re married. He sets out on a stolen raft down river, and next thing I know he has been to Darien, sold the raft, come back home, and buried a loved one—all “off screen.” The novel covers many years as Snake comes of age and loses himself in choosing money and prestige over nature and the river (a noble theme, to be sure). I wonder if all those years flash by us too quickly to enjoy?
…Read it yourself and decide.
FIVE STAR: The setting, the topic, the characters—a book on my river, for crying out loud!—appeal to me like a dream I don’t want to wake up from. The mystical world of the Ocmulgee-Oconee-Altamaha, a waterway that in many parts looks the same today as it did in the 19th-century setting of this novel. And these log-raft men: I tell you, I was born in the wrong century! “Yes I am a [log-rafter], two hundred years too late. The [steamboats] don’t thunder, there’s nothing to [wander], I’m an over [thirty] victim of fate.” Yes, as much as I hate timber cutting in general, I would like to raft a load down to Darien. I would like that very much. Since I can’t, the next best thing is to read a novel about it. Thank you Brainard Cheney.
I also must compliment him on his research for this book. He lived with the raftsmen, rode on their flotillas, and interviewed them extensively. It shows. Cheney, a Lumber City native, knew this territory in a way that maybe no other storyteller ever has. And he’s not in-your-face about the research, either. He puts the facts in there, and catch them if you can. For instance, when these rafters say “paddle white” or “paddle Indian,” Cheney explains nothing. I would perhaps have read right past this had I not already known that the old rivermen referred to the east bank as “white” and the west bank as “Indian,” because for many years the river formed the boundary between the settlers and the tribes. There were many such terms all throughout this book, none of them explained. I like that. (I would equally like a heavily footnoted copy of this book, for educational purposes. Any doctoral candidates out there looking for a topic? Hop to it!)
THREE STAR: Far be it from me to criticize a man’s writing. This is a hard game to play, no doubt. Still, I wanted this book, being set in a locale so dear to my heart, to be, I don’t know, better. The dialect strikes me as overdone. The “n-word” wore me out after its hundredth use. The jumping of focus from one character to another in something of haphazard way was distracting. All this kept snatching me out of the dreamy enjoyment I wanted. I could get past all these, I think, but still would have run up against the most problematic trait of all: Cheney continually skips the story. Time and again he leads us (readers) to the big moment, the exciting thing, the plot point of greatest interest, and then ends the chapter. The next chapter (that is, the next sentence) then begins in a scene two months or two years later. Our hero, “Snake,” meets a girl, has some warm feelings, and next thing I know, they’re married. He sets out on a stolen raft down river, and next thing I know he has been to Darien, sold the raft, come back home, and buried a loved one—all “off screen.” The novel covers many years as Snake comes of age and loses himself in choosing money and prestige over nature and the river (a noble theme, to be sure). I wonder if all those years flash by us too quickly to enjoy?
…Read it yourself and decide.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 27, 2024
Good read
A very interesting story of a time long ago. A much simpler life back then compared to now. Or was it. A tale that could very well be true. Who knows.
A very interesting story of a time long ago. A much simpler life back then compared to now. Or was it. A tale that could very well be true. Who knows.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews