Deliverance
by James Dickey

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Book Reviews of Deliverance

Book Review: Immerse oneself in nature means play by nature's rules
Summary: 5 Stars

What the transcedentalists like Thoreau, Wordsworth, Shelley and others failed to ultimately realize that immersing oneself in the sheer beauty of the natural world means that one must play by nature's rules. Dickey apparently believes Darwin was right in interpreting nature's rules to be: only the strong organism survives.

The four main characters serve as contemporary archetypes for contemporary American society.

Lewis is the uber-macho hunter eager to see the "system" fail so he can have the opportunity to live by his physique. He is sincere in his devotion to "the strenuous life", but Dickey will not allow us to depend on the traditional warrior to provide the food and the protection. It is our job.

Bobby is the overweight, vulgar super consumer who has, through the process of evolution, mangaged to remove all vestiges of the savage hunter from his being. He has become far too accustomed to feeding off the bounty harvested from the rape of the natural world (boy howdy is he in for an ironic table turning!). His soft white underbelly is ripe for the attack as he is incapable (at least in the beginning) of producing any physical threat. His job is to let his talking do the action.

Drew is the idealist who believes in the purity and gentle aesthetics of the forest. He is one who has probably commited "Walden Pound" and The Constitution to memory. It is he who believes in Democracy and decency. In many ways he is Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" reincarnated.

And finally there is our bland (this, I believe is Dickey's purposefull intention) narrator, the commercial artist Ed who is a blank slate. Like "The Call of The Wild's" 'Buck' (I strongly encourage all to re-read Jack London's aforemention book in conjunction with Deliverance- the similarities are astounding!), it is Ed who must progress (evolve) by retrogressing. It is he who I believe becomes the reader's persona and ultimately the story is about Ed's Deliverance. And ours. Perhaps.

Like William Golding's "Lord of the Flies", Dickey seems to suggest that while facing the roaring river and her inhabitants, morality is, to quote London "a luxury one can ill afford in the wild." Morality and law after all are not commodities traded in nature's open market.

Like the river itself, Deliverance is beautiful, savage, and ever flowing toward an inevitable (but suprising!) conclusion. It is not for the faint of heart, but for those looking for a good read containing prose crafted by an expert marksman, Deliverance is a great novel well worth your time. A classic.

Summary of Deliverance

Action & Adventure Books

• Books > Subjects > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction
• Literary
• Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Psychological Thrillers
• Suspense