Book: Deliverance by James Dickey

Deliverance is on Modern Library top 100 fictions of 20th century list. I did not know it was a book when I saw the movie several years ago. The movie was very well made. The thrills was unexpected. However, it was hard to imagine how the same story could be written in a book ranked among and higher than books such as On the Road, Catcher in the Rye, Heart of Darkness, A Room with a View, Brideshead Revisited, Sophie's Choice....

Eventually I made myself pick up the book last weekend on the flight to Colorado. A book about a river trip seems quite appropriate after reading some Joseph Conrad. The book is in great details, almost like the movie script. The screenplay is also by James Dickey, so the movie is very close to the book. James Dickey is supposed to be a famous poet. I expected beautiful language or long paragraphs of philosophical discussions. But this book has none of these. The introduction is very slow. Dialogues are used to state the theme and at times seems unnatural. The description of the canoe trip reminds me of our canoe trip to Boundary Waters (BWCA) last year, and I can appreciate the story better. The book tells the story of the four-man canoe trip from beginning to end effectively, and at night the chilling story gave me nightmares. Otherwise, I am not impressed with this book and don't understand why it is so highly rated.

We started watching the movie last night. Lewis is more self-absorbed than I had imaged (and remembered). The movie presents less thought processes and decision makings, but more action and the results of the decisions.

Why "deliverance"?
1 : the act of delivering someone or something : the state of being delivered; especially : LIBERATION, RESCUE
2 : something delivered; especially : an opinion or decision (as the verdict of a jury) expressed publicly

.... not with the practicality of sex, so necessary to its survival, but the promise of it that promised other things, another life, deliverance. (p.28)

I am mainly interested in sliding. Sliding is living antifriction. Or, no, sliding is living by antifriction. It is finding a modest thing you can do, and then greasing that thing. On both sides. It is grooving with comfort. (p.41)

-- Deliverance by James Dickey