Synopses & Reviews
The Run to Gitche Gumee is pure Jones: an outrageous outdoor adventure heightened by ribald humor, violence, sex, pitch-perfect dialog, unforgettably eccentric characters, and a riveting plot. Part One opens as two boyhood friends on the cusp of manhood - Ben, who is about to go off to the Korean War, and Harry, who is college-bound to become a doctor - set off on the final adventure of their youth: a canoe trip down the Firesteel River to Lake Superior, also known as Gitche Gumee, or the Big-Sea-Water by the native Ojibwa. Armed with flyrods and shotguns, they plan to fish and hunt their way downriver, relishing their last blast of freedom in the great outdoors. But their idyllic ride becomes surrealistic - as unexpected encounters with millionaires, college girls, hipsters, and lunatics are by turns titillating, nerve-wracking and deadly. Part Two takes place fifty years later, when Ben and Harry, now confronting illness and marital strife, decide to recreate their canoe trip as a last hurrah. This time the bravado of youth is replaced with the wisdom of their years and the pains of their pasts. This time they have little left to lose. (5 3/4 x 8 1/2, 292 pages)
Review
"THE RUN is a stunner, a remarkable tale of high adventure in a style so readable and fun that I couldn't put it down."--Elmore Leonard
"The Run to Gitche Gumee is vintage Robert F. Jones--a rollicking, politically incorrect, testosterone-laden adventure tale. First it's a story of the swaggering immortality of youth, tempered finally by the horrors of war and by the inexorable passing of the seasons. Then it's a story of the retrospection of old age, of recapturing old friendships, old rhythms, through the timeless twin solaces of fishing and hunting. Throughout it is infused with Jones's particular erudition, his specific knowledge of history and natural history, and of exactly how things work. This is wonderful novel--rich, colorful, funny, and poignant."
--James Fergus, author of 1,000 White Women
"In the tradition of Ernest Hemingway's finest stories, Robert F. Jones' The Run to Gitche Gumee is a wonderfully human and readable novel about war, wilderness, friendship, and growing older. From the wilds of northern Wisconsin, to behind enemy lines in war-torn Korea, The Run to Gitche Gumee is the best novel to date by America's best writer of high-action literary fiction." --Howard Frank Mosher, author of A Stranger in the Kingdom
"The Run to Gitche Gumee is a tough, funny, moving tale that fairly hums with Jones' enormous love of life, and love and knowledge of the outdoors; it is a wild and vivid ride to the place we are all on a run to." --Charles Gaines, author of A Family Place
"Jones has crafted an fast-moving novel that rides the swirling currents of his own delightful, madcap imagination. Gitche Gumee is a novel of life and adventure, wry humor and grim truth by America's best outdoor action writer." -- John Holt, author of Coyote Nowhere
"A well-told, wildly plotted tale that is rich with Jones' knowledge of how life outdoors keeps some souls alive even when the going is rougher than they planned." -- Gray's Sporting Journal
"The Run to Gitche Gumee has stirred the literary ranks as only Jones could...you're sure to be lured by the compelling storyline as Jones sinks his hook deeper with every passing paragraph." --Sports Afield
"Jones provides lavish descriptions of the natural world and pays witness to man's every-growing distance from it." --Publishers Weekly
"This is Tom and Huck, the Eisenhower years. The Run to Gitche Gumee fits in among books by writers such as Ernest Hemingway and Elmore Leonard...Jones, an accomplished author of sportsman's literature, captures two boys' Gitche Gumee, and takes us to the river to remember our own." --Midwest Living
"A great, page-turning read." --Big Sky Journal
Review
"A well-told, wildly plotted tale that is rich with Jones' knowledge of how life outdoors keeps some souls alive even when the going is rougher than they planned."--
Gray's Sporting Journal Synopsis
The Run to Gitche Gumee is pure Jones, revealing his wicked humor honed to a gleaming edge. Two boyhood friends on the cusp of manhood-Ben, about to go off to the Korean War, and Harry, college-bound to become a doctor-set off on the final adventure of their youth: a canoe trip down the Firesteel River to Lake Superior, also known as Gitche Gumee. But their idyllic ride becomes surreal as unexpected encounters with millionaires, college girls, hipsters, and lunatics are by turns titillating, nerve-wracking, and deadly.
Fifty years later, Ben and Harry-now confronting their mortality-decide to recreate their canoe trip as a last hurrah. This time the bravado of youth is replaced with the wisdom of their years and the pain of their pasts. This time they have little left to lose.
The Run to Gitche Gumee is Jones at his very best.
Synopsis
An outrageous outdoor adventure heightened by ribald humor, violence, sex, pitch-perfect dialogue, unforgettably eccentric characters, and a riveting plot.
About the Author
ROBERT F. JONES was the author of eight novels and six works of nonfiction. His work regularly appeared in Sports Afield, Men's Journal, Outdoor Life, Big Sky Journal, Audubon, Time, Sports Illustrated, Life, People, Harper's, Fly Rod & Reel, The New York Times, and Shooting Sportsman.