Deliverance by James Dickey

“An unsettling and frankly unnecessary story about men being accosted and their fight for survival in the Southern wilderness.”

1 Star

Pros: Dickeys prose is both beautiful and disturbing

Cons: There was no provocation for the hillbillies to attack Ed and Bobby. I think Dickey just needed something to drive the plot aside from four men sailing in canoes on a river/ The dialogue was atrocious. I didn’t know people actually talk like that though it could have been a 70s thing 

Full Review:

Yes, for the most part we’ve all heard of the movie “Deliverance” and at least know about that infamous scene with the hillbillies etc. And though there is the dueling banjos scene and the disturbing attack, for the most part the book is about four men going out of their comfort zone, trying something new and adventurous and it certainly doesn’t turn out at all the way they hoped. 

Ed, the protagonist is a graphic artist making ads for newspapers and pamphlets. His friend Lewis has the bright idea to have a weekend away canoeing down a river, a way to escape the monotony of their everyday lives. Their two other friends, Bobby and Drew are more just side characters, not really fleshed out in anyway. The only two characters that have any sort of background are Ed and Lewis. 

They’re as different as night and day. Ed is a coaster, getting through life by doing a half decent job at a career he doesn’t mind, if not entirely happy. Lewis is the opposite. He’s a doer. He’s in shape, hunts, fishes and is the only one who seems suited to this kind of trip. So when it all goes belly up he is at the same time both the savior and the villain because he does something that could get them all into even more trouble than they’re already in. 

The infamous “scene” is the catalyst for Lewis’ actions and to the reader his actions are totally justified. But what happens afterwards puts everyone on a slippery slope. And after they deal with that particular problem, it only gets worse and Lewis is now the one that needs rescuing and is the reason all this has befallen them. 

Greatly disturbing but at the same time irksome because there was absolutely no reason for the hillbillies to act the way they did and attack the others. It felt as if Dickey was grasping at straws when he was trying to figure out a good way to keep the story moving forward and keep the reader interested. And he succeeds but at the same time it all feels very forced and unnecessary. 

I honestly was just glad to get the book over with. I struggled over the last 30 pages and I honestly kept falling asleep at the end. I really wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone. The authors prose which started out as new and interesting turned strange, confusing and just long winded in the end. I’ve read the book. I’m glad to be done with it. Hopefully the next book I read will be better.