Looking for Mo

by Daniel Duane

Ray Connelly is trying to come to terms with the fact that he and Mo Lehrman will never get to finish their ascent of Yosemite's El Capitan, the Notre Dame of the rock-climbing world. Mo, charismatic and fearlessly romantic, has wandered off to parts unknown, while Ray is settling down (with considerable discomfort), watching his friends marry off, and waiting for word from publishers about the manuscript detailing his and Mo's climbing adventures together. He may even be falling in love. But when Mo shows up out of the blue, convinced that Ray has stolen his unwritten stories, Ray's world collapses.Their conflict is dramatically resolved in a physically excruciating and emotionally fraught climb up the very same peak that thwarted them before.

Paperback

First published June 1, 1998

About the author

Daniel Duane is the author of two novels and four books of non-fiction, including the memoir Caught Inside: A Surfer’s Year on the California Coast. He hosts the Sony Music podcast Reunion: Shark Attacks in Paradise, a co-production of HyperObject Industries and Little Everywhere. Duane has written journalism about everything from politics and food to rock-climbing and social justice, and for publications ranging from The New York Times Magazine to Wired, GQ, Esquire, Outside, and Bon Appetit. Duane won a 2012 National Magazine Award for an article about cooking with Chef Thomas Keller and has twice been a finalist for a James Beard Award. Duane holds a PhD in American Literature from UC Santa Cruz and has taught writing for the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference, University of California Santa Cruz, and the MFA program at San Francisco State University. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, the writer Elizabeth Weil, and their two daughters.

Reviews

[Benjamin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ray Connelly failed in his attempt on El Capitan, Yosemite's forbidding sheer rock face, letting down his friend Mo. He is in even more trouble with his friend having "borrowed" the many stories Mo has told him, written a book of them and their climbing adventures together and tried to get it published. Mo is not happy.

Can he repair the rift in their friendship, what hopes of his future as a writer if he must abandon his cherished book, and has he finally found love in the form of Fiona, and how much of this is he prepared to sacrifice in order to make things right with Mo?

Looking For Mo provides and insight into the lives of those young men who pursue the thrills and dangers of surfing and climbing and live life according to their own values. When Ray finally tracks down Mo they make another attempt on El Capitan we experience something of the thrills of the climb ourselves.

This is a well written and engaging novel, Ray has a very high regard for his friend Mo, and when we finally meet Mo it is easy to see why. While the conclusion is positive it gives little clue as to where Ray's life will go from there, I'd like to have known something of what the future now holds for him.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Soooo 1998, and reflecting the emotional maturity of an early twenty-something. Squirmily uncomfortable like listening to an overly-earnest person who is searching for their purpose in life and is not yet able to see the fun/contradictions/amusements in the search itself. Seriously, is it actually possible to read about someone else's trip at a Dead concert without gagging?

The climb part itself was the least contrived, if you can make it to that part of the book. Makes me want to go back to Yosemite, even if I still have no desire to climb El Cap...

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feeling a little let down, now that I finished it. Was waiting for something epic to happen, but was only left to keep waiting. It did had a few good life lessons and lines towards the end, but felt like there could have been more. Maybe it's just me...and something about having "Most of all, I envied the water on the priest's pale, bony fingers" as the last sentence in the book bewilders me.
Nevertheless, makes me want to find my calling in life and strive towards happiness, not in Mo's shadow. I want to create my own shadow.

[TK421 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Notes:

Mountain metaphor...perhaps every book is about conquering a mountain

Mo
Ray

Makes the reader think about love of self and others and physical objects and all the meandering thoughts in each of our cavernous minds.

Pseudo philosophy and religion...drags the story...story recovers

[Dobber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I positively loved Duane's Caught Inside, about surfing. This was a good read but not a great one. I prefer his nonfiction accounts of surfing and mountain climbing; he has a marvelous narrative style.

[Chrissie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love a good climbing novel. This one was pretty good. A quick read. I read most of it while doing laundry.

It started out really well, but then bogged down in cliched kinda zen philosophy and quasi-Kerouac-ish-ness (totally a word) towards the end.

[Philippe Bishop · Rating 4 out of 5]

great story, but not quite as good as Caught Inside.

[Andrea Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

I admire Dan's writing immensely.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for those that have hiked or climbed the sierras.

[Richard Kravitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember this story being kind of weird, like about stealing someone else's stories.