Novels
- The River Why (1983)
- The Brothers K (1992)
Collections
- River Teeth (1995)
Non fiction
- God Laughs and Plays (2006)
Novels Book Covers
Collections Book Covers
Non fiction Book Covers
David James Duncan Books Overview
The River Why
Since its publication by Sierra Club Books more than two decades ago, The River Why has become a classic, standing with Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It as our era s most widely read fiction about fly fishing. This captivating and exuberant tale is told by Gus Orviston, an irreverent young fly fisherman and one of the most appealing heroes in contemporary American fiction. Leaving behind a madcap, fishing obsessed family, Gus decides to strike out on his own, taking refuge in a remote riverbank cabin to pursue his own fly fishing passion with unrelenting zeal. But instead of finding fishing bliss, Gus becomes increasingly troubled by the degradation of the natural world around him and by the spiritual barrenness of his own life. His desolation drives him on a reluctant quest for self discovery and meaning ultimately fruitful beyond his wildest dreams. Stylistically adept and ambitious in scope, The River Why is a touching and powerful novel by an important voice in American fiction. In a new Afterword written for this twentieth anniversary edition, David James Duncan reflects on the genesis of his book and on the surprising link between fishing and wisdom.
The Brothers K
This touching, uplifting novel spans decades of loyalty, anger, regret, and love in the lives of the Chance family. Here there is a father whose dreams of glory on a baseball field are shattered by a mill accident, a mother who clings obsessively to a religion as a ward against the darkest hour of her past, and four brothers who come of age during the seismic upheavals of the sixties and who each choose their own way to deal with what the world has become.
River Teeth
In his passionate, luminous novels, David James Duncan has won the devotion of countless critics and readers, earning comparisons to Harper Lee, Tom Robbins, and J.D. Salinger, to name just a few. Now Duncan distills his remarkable powers of observation into this unique collection of short stories and essays. At the heart of Duncan’s tales are characters undergoing the complex and violent process of transformation, with results both painful and wondrous. Equally affecting are his nonfiction reminiscences, the ‘River Teeth‘ of the title. He likens his memories to the remains of old growth trees that fall into Northwestern rivers and are sculpted by time and water. These experiences shaped by his own river of time are related with the art and grace of a master storyteller. In River Teeth, a uniquely gifted American writer blends two forms, taking us into the rivers of truth and make believe, and all that lies in between.
God Laughs and Plays
The most important book on religion this year, perhaps this decade. The Literary Spirituality Review In this multiple award winning and bestselling diagnosis of the contemporary American spirit, David James Duncan suggests that the de facto political party embodied by the so called Christian Right has turned worship into a self righteous betrayal of the words and example of the very Jesus it claims to praise. In a bracing and often hilarious response to this trend, God Laughs & Plays offers churchless sermons, stories, memoir, conversations, and cosmological reflections that scorn riches and embrace the poor; bless peacemakers, not war makers; celebrate creation, diversity, empathy, playfulness and beauty; and insist that Divine Mystery is indeed mysterious and compassion is literally compassionate. The spiritual kingdom described by Jesus, this unusual book reminds us, is located not ‘in the Sky’ or beyond a disastrous future, but within us, to be sought and embodied in the here and now.
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