| Faithful Travelers | 
 enlarge | Creator: James Dodson
Publisher: Random House Audio
Category: Book
List Price: $22.95
Buy New: $4.49
You Save: $18.46 (80%)
New (6) Used (5) from $3.10
Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 2932248
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
Media: Audio Cassette
Number Of Items: 4
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7 x 4.5 x 1.3
ISBN: 0553478516
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.8742
EAN: 9780553478518
ASIN: 0553478516
Publication Date: May 4, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: In original shrinkwrap
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Amazon.com Review
James Dodson, in his probing, soft Southern accent, tells the story of driving across the United States with his daughter Maggie in search of the perfect trout stream and solace from his impending divorce. Musical interludes reflect the unfolding journey (fiddle music in the South, Native American rhythms in the West), adding yet another layer to an audio chronicle that is already rich in historical and personal context. Maggie herself reads a passage from her journal, lending the perspective of a 7-year-old to her father's narrative of their camping trip, which takes them from Maine to Yellowstone and back (additional excerpts from Maggie appear in the book). The sum of these elements is a truly poignant listening experience. Dodson's knowledge of American history, his attention to landscape and people, his willingness to explore his faith and failed marriage, and his unshakable devotion to his family and fly-fishing make him a fine traveling companion. (Running time: six hours, four cassettes) -- A.E.D.
Product Description
In Final Rounds, James Dodson told the poignant story of the golf trip of a lifetime with his terminally ill father.Now, armed with a fly-fishing rod and reel, he embarks with his daughter on an equally memorable journey across America in search of clear-running streams and the eternal truths that only nature can provide.
It has been said that life is what happens while you're waiting to go fishing.Only weeks after his eleven-year marriage abruptly ended in an amicable divorce, James Dodson decided to go on a fly-fishing pilgrimage west.His goal: to heal his wounded spirit and explain as best he could the vagaries of life and love to his beautiful, precocious seven-year-old daughter, Maggie.So with his beat-up truck and his aging retriever, Dodson and Maggie set out without plans or reservations, following where the spirit--and the lure of America's mighty rivers--leads them, on their way to one of America's grandest treasures: Yellowstone National Park.
They travel from the Adirondacks to the mist-shrouded Niagara Falls; from the Michigan lakes Hemingway roamed as a boy to small-town county fairs; from the majesty of Mount Rushmore to the mysticism of Harney's Peak--all the way to the fly-fisherman's paradise of the San Juan River.Together, they are bound by a tie as resilient and unpredictable as a fly-fisherman's line.For as the emotional waters in which they fish become ever more turbulent, Maggie's unspoken feelings of grief, anger, and blame begin to surface--a depth of hurt that forces Dodson to face his own unacknowledged pain and, worse, leaves him feeling helpless to make everything all right in his daughter's life again.Yet if fly-fishing has taught James Dodson anything, it is the rewards of patience, of following the wisdom of the course of the stream, the unexpected revelations reflected in still pools, and, of course an abiding belief in plain dumb luck.With a little of each, these faithful travelers will find their way home again.
Literate, honest, and deeply observant, Faithful Travelers is a beautiful meditation on the bond between parent and child and the nature of love and loss.In Faithful Travelers, James Dodson proves that sometimes life isn't what happens while you're waiting to go fishing: sometimes it happens while you're there.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
A gentle, charming tale January 24, 2000
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
If you are expecting to learn a lot about fishing, or about human relationships and all those difficult questions, this is not the book for you. But if you want a well written, charming story of a father and daughter trip out west, this is a great read. It manages to avoid being over sentimental, raises a few interesting questions, doesn't pretend to have the answers but ripples by as enjoyably as a relaxing day on a good stream.
Very touching for fathers with little girls November 2, 1999
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book represents the how we (fathers of daughters) feel about the fear of having our little girls grow up and away from us. I'm a new father and this book drives home my priority to spend every minute with my little angel.
 Outstanding--great to see such talent in an old classmate May 21, 1999
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Congratulations to Jim Dodson! -- someone who I knew, unfortunately not well enough, in high school. Have been promising myself for quite some time to begin writing. You, and the inspiration delivered daily from my (new) son Alex, just might be the catalyst.
 A Tepid "Heartwarmer" September 22, 1998
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
As a divorced flyfisherman with a 7-year old daughter named *Megan*, you'd think I would have loved this book. Indeed, I shelled out the cost of the hardcover based on the similarities between Dodson's book and my own life. Unfortunately, I felt that the book rambled as much as their journey - it reads more like a transcription of Dodson's journal than a coherent narrative. As with any long drive, it's always touch-and-go whether the highpoints outweigh the hours of monotonous driving. That having been said, Dodson has a keen eye for detail and some of his scenes, as well as the letter to his daughter, are excellent. Just don't get your hopes up too high.
20th Century Literature at its best August 24, 1998
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
20th Century Literature is usually a term reserved for gaudy, existential, stream of consciousness drivel that lays down a subjective take on the sensuality of the day we live in without attempting to make any sense of it. I found this book to be a refreshing departure, a very human story told by I man I find easy to understand as he tries to make sense of situations that I find all too easy to relate to. Most importantly, there is an overriding sense of value, love, worth, interdependence, and genuine warm humanity. I don't feel an attempt to encapsulate a brief series of experiences to wring the emotion from it in a sensational or glamorous way, but rather a down to earth exposition of real life, told with a feeling of assurance that it does all tie together, life does have meaning, it does make sense, love is real, if a bit poignant, someone is watching over us, the past has validity, and there is definite reason to have hope and positive expectations for the future. A beautiful book. Don't miss it.
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