" We were ready. Drew crawled into the front of the aluminum canoe. I was glad he was there; I could work with him. He sat with the paddle just out of the river, shaking his head. Neither of us said anything until I told him to push off." "The walls were at least 150 feet high on both sides of us now. The cross-reverberation seemed to hold us on course as much as the current did; it was part of the same thing---the way we had to move to get through the gorge." I would have liked to have read how Hemingway dealt with such an incident. The way the film was shot, i would guess the Burt Reynolds-played character was the book's narrator.

Just like the river where the story takes place in the Georgia backcountry, Deliverance starts slow and meandering. Dickey spends the first 100 pages setting the scene and foreshadowing. When the plot hits the proverbial rapids, thrilling action comes fast and furious in the form of classic conflicts of man vs. nature and man vs. man. (Although the four friends who embark on the canoe trip are in their thirties, a coming-of-age tale is also embedded between the lines.) I had a hard time putting the book down - partly because the action was so good and partly because the book has five sections but no chapters. You find yourself reading 75 pages before finding a natural stopping point to put your bookmark in.

I discovered the book from Time Magazine's "100 best novels of all TIME." I enjoyed Deliverance but want to note that it's not quite on par with 5-star novels on that list, like The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, or The Grapes of Wrath, in my humble opinion.

Descriptive novel that contrasts city versus country life and the extent and requirements needed to survive. The characterizations are done well and the pace is quite quick. It is amazing how close the movie follows the book. Worth reading if you are interested.

Well, that escalated quickly.

Haunting, creepy story that I felt was slightly laborious to read at times. I read this in a couple of days and must admit to skimming some of the more long and descriptive passages, especially the long conversations between some of the characters that felt odd and stilted - not the way that people typically talk to one another. The overall premise was chilling though, and that was enough to keep me reading.