Outdoor writer and recovering raft guide Jo Deurbrouck (born in Ephrata, WA) has been thinking about rivers much of her life. She invites you to hear what she has to say about wild water, the necessity of adventure, and her new book; and let her transport you onto lovely rivers and big adventures.
“Anything Worth Doing” concerns the story worthy lives of two raft guides who decide that “anything worth doing is worth overdoing,” and spend ten years trying to prove it on the loveliest rivers in the West. Their adventures evolve from idyllic to (arguably) strange to tragic.
The book has been praised by a range of literary voices, including David James Duncan and Pulitzer finalist Kim Barnes, novelists who don’t usually advocate for adventure titles. Barnes described the book as “… a true drama whose characters will break your heart with their dreams, courage, vulnerability, and absolute determination to live life on their own terms, no matter the cost.”
If you’re a fan of David James Duncan’s ‘The River Why” or “The Brothers K,” you won’t be surprised to learn that he said a mouthful: “ ‘Anything Worth Doing’ unfolds with an inevitability worthy of two vastly different art forms: whitewater dory navigation, and Greek tragedy. The wonder of these forms is that, in Jo Deurbrouck’s able hands (as in Homer’s or Euripides’), knowing the fatal outcome in no way diminishes the power of the narrative or the element of surprise. Clancy Reece turns out to be a redneck poet-hero worthy of a not-yet-written ballad by Steve Earle, Jon Barker is no less admirably crazed than Lewis or Clark, and Ms. Deurbrouck has written Western river lovers a white-knuckled adventure classic.”
Back when the men in this book, Clancy Reece and Jon Barker, were doing their thing, a few newspapers and magazines wrote about them. But most of their story hasn’t been told until now. It deserves to be. These aren’t the guys who summit Mount Everest once and mark it off their bucket list, or haul a refrigerator around Ireland on a lark. They’re the guys who live and fiercely defend their dream, year after year.
Deurbrouck worked as a raft guide on a Who’s Who of world-class Idaho and Oregon rivers for 12 seasons. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Creative Nonfiction, Paddler Magazine and others.
Join Jo Deurbrouck Sunday November 14, 4 pm, Village Books, Fairhaven; Thursday November 29, 7 pm, Ravenna Third Place Books, Seattle and Signing only, Tuesday November 27, Park Place Books, Kirkland.
