To escape, Ed must scale a gorge and kill the man. In adapting the scene for the film, we simply see Voight climbing the gorge, the fear and terror obvious in his eyes with each hand and foothold. Another example of using images rather than words to convey the emotion is the ending. In the novel, we are told the fates of the surviving characters: Bobby moves away, Ed buys a cabin on a lake, etc.
In the film, however, we only see a forever-changed Ed returning home to his wife and child. The final scene shows a ghostly hand rising out of a river, a nightmarish image that jolts Ed from his sleep. As he lays back down, his eyes show us he will forever be haunted by his ordeal. He did somehow survive and lived to a healthy age -- but as a melancholy, withdrawn, brooding old man whose spirit had been permanently altered by the test he put it to.
If there is a worst journey in the world, Cherry-Gerrard was there and took it and knew what it was like. James Dickey's "Deliverance" also is the story of a "worst journey.
One of the four is big on the old machismo. The other three, to various degrees, are unsuited to make the journey. Before their trip is over, one of them is dead, one has been raped by a demented hillbilly and the other two have each killed a hillbilly with a bow and arrow.
Dickey, who wrote the original novel and the screenplay, lards this plot with a lot of significance -- universal, local, whatever happens to be on the market. He is clearly under the impression that he is telling us something about the nature of man, and particularly civilized man's ability to survive primitive challenges "Survival," the macho Burt Reynolds character tells us, "is the name of the game" But I don't think it works that way.
The movie is admittedly effective on the level of simple adventure. Director John Boorman and his cameraman, Vilmos Zsigmond, get some tremendously good and unfaked footage of the foursome shooting some fairly hairy rapids.
The scenes of violence and rape also work, it must be admitted, although in a disgusting way. The appeal to latent sadism is so crudely made that the audience is embarrassed. It is, from turn to turn, menacing and deadly and claustrophobic. As it runs inexorably downhill, the horrific events and the lies that follow are left upriver where the men can only hope they will remain buried forever.
Was James Dickey suggesting that men are a sum of these parts? Or at least capable of them? Are these various beasts much closer to one another than we like to admit? And how do we react when confronted with the shock of this recognition?
These questions are the real river in this book, the downhill force that makes for a complicated journey. The writing in Deliverance is keen and Dickey drops the hammer mercilessly. Oct 10, Alex rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: bad canoers.
Shelves: Poet Laureate James Dickey is interested in getting back to the basics, escaping from the plastic-wrapped safety of suburbia: his characters find that they are in no way equipped to handle it.
I know Deliverance from the movie, and specifically from the only scene anyone remembers from the movie, which invol "You didn't know what you uz agettin' into, did you? I know Deliverance from the movie, and specifically from the only scene anyone remembers from the movie, which involves squealing like a pig.
That line isn't in the book, although the scene is. I didn't even realize it was based on a book until recently. But here it is, and it shows up on Top lists by Time and Modern Library, and it's a great book.
There are two possible storylines here. In the first, men get in touch with reality and find that they have it in them to survive when they're tested. In the second interpretation, men get in touch with reality and immediately cock it entirely up; their fear and incompetence lead them into the worst possible decisions at every turn, and they emerge criminals.
Both are to some extent true. It's certainly true that their entire expedition, canoeing down a river they know nothing about into whitewater they're totally unprepared to handle, is a world-class stupid idea. It's also true that some of them show courage and determination in great danger. The tipping point comes down to Ed's big moment with a bow and arrow.
But he's never sure it's the right guy; he might simply have ambushed and murdered any old dude walking in the woods. It's also just a total page turner, one of those rare books that's both great entertainment and great literature. Sure, Dickey - primarily a poet - gets a little fancy with his language, especially toward the end. But it's fine, he's earned it. This is one of the best books I've read this year. Jan 23, Brian rated it it was amazing. This is a powerfully written novel that at its core deals with our instinctual human desire to survive at all costs.
The plot is basic; four men decide to raft a seldom traveled river through north Georgia hill country. From that point on it is man verse nature, and in the end you might call it a draw. James Dickey was a renowned poet, and only wrote a couple of novels. Reading "Deliverance" you can tell.
The prose is economical, and there are rarely more words used then are needed. For the casua This is a powerfully written novel that at its core deals with our instinctual human desire to survive at all costs. For the casual reader this will be frustrating, as the poetic format of some of the novel leaves narrative gaps that the reader must fill. But, if you get on board with Mr. Dickey's style you will enjoy the ride. Some have said that the characters are not fleshed out, but I disagree.
The book is narrated by Ed Gentry after the fact, and his observations of his companions and the environment around him are sharp and resound with humanity. Besides the human characters in the text Mr. Dickey has written one of the great novels about Nature and its power. The river is one of the main characters in this novel, and one feels its emotions, its current, its strength, its malice with every descriptive phrase.
Rarely have I read a book where the physical actions of the characters were etched into my mind and my body responded with the sense memory. This novel does that. Dickey has made the physical battle for survival as real as I have come across in literature. Besides the survival element of the book, "Deliverance" also deals with the philosophical question of what makes us human and civilized. The answers are not always what we want to hear, but they still ring with human truth.
It is too bad that most people's connection with "Deliverance" is the film and not this inspired text. It should be much more than a pop culture reference. Dec 16, Cbj rated it really liked it Shelves: americana , pompous-but-interesting , scenes-of-nature , tough-as-nails , tired-of-modern-life , going-away-from-civilization.
Three squares led by a survivalist, head to rural America in search of adventure. They get more than they bargained for. But in the process, some of them become better men. Deliverance is one of the best survival novels of all time. It is amazing how American novels speak to the whole world. They speak everyone's language and appeal to people from all cultures.
I am sure readers from all earth alienated cultures would be able to identify with Deliverance. It is a really entertaining novel once th Three squares led by a survivalist, head to rural America in search of adventure. It is a really entertaining novel once the narrators tone changes from that of an irritating middle class pussy who is in awe of the canoe trip and the river to one of a self assured man who is going to hold his own and survive in nature. The first half of the novel was a bit of a slog because Dickey overemphasizes the inadequacy of Ed Gentry the narrator and his feeling of awe for Lewis Ed's ultra masculine friend and leader of the group almost as if he is a little kid looking up to his father.
After Lewis is severely injured when their boat overturns, Ed takes up responsibility for the groups safety almost with a feeling of glee. It is almost as if Ed is a cunning character who waited for "shit to hit the fan" so that he could show what a tough guy he was. That's just the impression that I got. Maybe there is a bit of a sadist in all of us, who fantasizes about taking over from the alpha male. The path to manhood is filled with malevolence and treachery.
View all 3 comments. May 13, Matthew rated it really liked it Shelves: , classic , library , general-fiction , completist-book-club. I enjoyed this book. From what I remember, I believe the made the movie pretty close to the book. I don't think the characters were very prepared and did not proceed with a lot of common sense, so it could be said that they sort of deserved the trouble they encountered.
The biggest thing I took from this is how easy you can go from having a fairly normal life to having one with skeletons in your closet that will haunt you every day. View 1 comment. The book from which they made the movie that kicked off the backwoods brutality genre. I haven't seen the movie. It probably isn't as dense with details of slants of thought and twists of mind as the novel is. On the other hand, it probably doesn't have to spend hundreds and hundreds of words describing settings.
Dickey's style is far from stripped-down or terse. It's detailed; very detailed. Often too much so for my taste, getting lost in a second-by-second description of crawling over a rock, The book from which they made the movie that kicked off the backwoods brutality genre. Often too much so for my taste, getting lost in a second-by-second description of crawling over a rock, climbing up a tree, and so on, delaying the next narrative beat with a wash of nuance.
None of it is badly written, some of it is startlingly brilliant: the small waverings and clingings of the narrator,torn between wanting to savour this weekend in the wild as much as the macho friend he almost hero worships - but not quite - and realising that he belongs in a far more urban, domestic version of the world, however strong the temptation to fantasise about rugged survival might be.
His need for safety and escape, the extremes they drive him too, the moments of total focus, identification with his target, contempt for the weak, for his weakened friends. The economical but effective sketches of his companions - it's hard to know if any of them really were friends, after all. What holds me back from a 4-star rating is the fact that Dickey's narrative was often at odds with narrative flow, wordy where it should have been deft, weighty where it should have sprinted.
There is just one pace throughout, the strong but plodding pace of a middle-aged man who gives the impression that he is settled in his life but is actually still trying to figure it all out in his head - which is marvelously apropos, but perhaps overdone a bit. Geoffrey Household would have given you all the action and the introspection without any of the dead time. I'll need to read this one more time to decide for sure. Sep 19, Carol rated it really liked it Shelves: ebook , classics , saw-the-movie , read , adventure.
A weekend canoeing trip for four friends becomes a battle for survival in this suspenseful and action-packed adventure story set in the remote backwoods of Georgia. A real page-turner that makes me want to watch the movie again plus see and hear the dueling banjo scene. A must-read! May 22, Jessica Woodbury rated it really liked it Shelves: audiobooks , rereads. I read this book years ago, back in the days when I used the Modern Library Best Novels list to guide my reading because I didn't really understand modern literature outside The Canon.
It was one of the books that really stood out to me and I've always remembered it fondly. An Audible sale gave me the chance to experience it again and re-evaluate it with more years behind me and a much broader understanding of modern lit. It was not at all what I expected, and it still stands out with a hand I read this book years ago, back in the days when I used the Modern Library Best Novels list to guide my reading because I didn't really understand modern literature outside The Canon.
It was not at all what I expected, and it still stands out with a handful of other novels that are much more thrilling than the rest. Dickey was a poet before he was a novelist and his prose is observant and exhilarating, just like the story itself.
It's an excellent pairing of writing and plot, the two flowing together perfectly. At first I thought the book might be a critique of masculinity, a kind of a laugh at the macho suburban man and his belief in his own power. I saw the character of Lewis, the suburban dad who's also a militant survivalist, as a rather obvious satire in the beginning, which sent me along that line. But I don't think Dickey quite sees it that way.
I get his point of view but he and I differ ultimately on what the story should mean. What makes the book work so well, regardless of my disagreements with Dickey, is the voice and the brain of Ed, the main character. Ed is sharply aware of his own place in the world, of his limitations, of the joys and woes in the suburban monotony of his life. If Ed didn't observe the world and the people in it as keenly as he does, the book may not have the kind of muscle it does.
He may not be a very realistic character, I've certainly never encountered a man of his age with such acute understanding, but it works for the book. This isn't a story for an unreliable narrator. I don't know why I trusted Ed's voice so immediately, but I did. That is part of what Dickey does so well. It's hypnotic. In the end, Dickey sees a grandness that may be in nature or may be what man can pull out of himself when confronted with nature.
Either way, he sees Ed as a bigger person when the book is over. Whereas I see a group of shortsighted assholes who willingly walked themselves practically into their own graves.
This is where Dickey and I differ, though you can read the book the way I do pretty much until the last few pages and still keep it in your head just fine. It is rather interesting to me that this book though really it's the movie more than the book has been distilled entirely down to murderous, raping hillibillies.
And it's interesting to me that while the book and the film dared to depict a man as a victim of rape, that it's become so singular as the symbol of this in pop culture that you almost never see it elsewhere. It's particularly frustrating when you think of just how often the rape of a woman is cheerfully depicted as a plot device. It is, to me, another commentary on masculinity and homophobia, on how we see the rape of men as emasculating, as instantly removing masculinity.
I don't think it's an accident that the victim in the book is the pudgy, nice guy rather than any of the tougher dudes. Anyway, this book gave me a lot to think about, even if Dickey and I don't see it the same way, and I enjoyed it quite a lot. There are no spoilers here, nothing to ruin it for the few people who have never seen the movie of the same name.
The movie followed fairly closely to the book, so I knew where the plot was headed the whole time. Even with that knowledge, I was inexorably pulled into the story, unable to set the book down. As a canoe trip that began as a break in There are no spoilers here, nothing to ruin it for the few people who have never seen the movie of the same name.
This book is a mixture of a thriller tinged with adventure, camaraderie, dread, and the horror that only an unexpected, unspeakable situation can inflict. Human nature is human nature, and it is impossible to predict how anyone would act if confronted with a similar situation. Five stars. Apr 06, Cheryl rated it it was amazing Shelves: pub , survival , culture-clashes , georgia-rapids , topbooks-ofth-century.
The 'where' and the 'who' of this novel seem to be the most important aspects of the author's famous work. The intense, visceral clash between "the people with nine fingers" and the alpha-males challenging themselves on Georgia's cavern of white water rapids couldn't have come to life anywhere but there. And what happens on the river between the city-dwellers and country-kin is somehow believable because of the cultural differences.
It's early morning here. I've been reading most of the night to The 'where' and the 'who' of this novel seem to be the most important aspects of the author's famous work. I've been reading most of the night to find out what happens to the four men who come to the river to test their survival skills and leave civilization behind for a few days. Whatever the charges of the canoe rental, the fifty dollars they pay to have locals drive their car to the end of the line, the costs will never cover the terrors of the trip.
And the nightmares of the reader. Mar 03, Kelly and the Book Boar rated it really liked it Shelves: read-in Even if you are like me and have never watched the film version of Deliverance , I bet a lot of you are familiar enough with a certain iconic scene that when you hear a particular little ditty you immediately get a shiver down your spine. Although I kind of knew what was going to happen, I still was going and then was terrified at what could possibly happen next because there was a lot of book left.
And what a lot of book there was. An edge-of-your-seat read that left me feeling like I might have burned a few thousand calories with all of the nervous knee bouncing I was doing. Apr 14, Adam Morel rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites. For over thirty years, I have avoided this story. A young man with little experience in the woods outside of a KOA campground need not soon revisit such a tale of horror and invasion.
Still, the memories of the worst of it, the visual of it have stayed with me, however blurred. The albino boy with the banjo, the wildness of the river, and yes, the screams of Ned Beatty.
But film has rarely if ever captured the dark beauty of nature or the hopelessness of true tragedy and so it became time to pla For over thirty years, I have avoided this story.
But film has rarely if ever captured the dark beauty of nature or the hopelessness of true tragedy and so it became time to place the story into the frame for which it was painted by its author. Not the four corners of a television screen but the boundless, edgeless space of the imagination.
James Dickey's novel is a haunted lyric, a trembling poem in homage to the blackness of the woods, the foaming malevolence of white water, the wretchedness of human depravity. His words are beautiful and terrible. As a man, I have learned to love the woods and the waters that flow through them. I have spent my share of time in the back country with men I have respected and loved in search of nothing more than that sought after by the men in Dickey's novel - decompression, detachment, deliverance.
The strange otherness of the night, hanging between the trees in the same Appalachia is part of my own experience. And so I am frightened by this story and excited by it having bathed in the adrenaline that comes only from the place where courage and fear come to terms. I recommend this book to every weekend warrior who has depended on fire and fortitude and friendship to smooth the rugged wilderness into a place not to run from but to return to with all the exhilaration the human spirit is capable of achieving.
This one, Mr. Dickey, goes on the top shelf. Nov 17, Bren fall in love with the sea. Shelves: great-for-book-clubs , southern-literature , thriller-horror , saw-movie-and-read-book , drama-tearjerker , adventure , classics , suspense , better-or-worse-than-expected , the-ocean-and-sea-lakes-beaches-etc.
I have seen the movie and both the book and the movie are equally good. Never will I forget this story. Even now, I reread the book and when I see the film on television I have to watch it. I loved the book and whenever I reread it always feels fresh and like it is the first time ever that I am reading it.
And Deliverance, the movie, is just as great.
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