Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Life on the Mississippi

Life on the Mississippi

Twain, Mark

Paperback

Adventurers & ExplorersLiterary CriticismFiction Anthologies

ISBN10: 1484004582
ISBN13: 9781484004586
Publisher: Createspace
Published: Apr 1 2013
Pages: 398
Weight: 1.56
Height: 0.82 Width: 7.44 Depth: 9.69
Language: English
This book--at times disjointed, rambling, self-referential, and irreverent--is decades ahead of its time. It's an interdisciplinarian's dream as Twain takes on economics, geography, politics, ancient and contemporary history, and folklore with equal ease. Mostly though, one appreciates his knack for exaggeration, the tall tale, and the outright lie. It's a triumph of tone, as he lets you in on his wild wit, his keen observation, and his penchant for bending the truth without losing his credibility as a guide. The book's structure is also modern: He recounts his days as a paddlewheel steam boat cub, piloting the hundreds of miles of the Mississippi before the Civil War, then, in Part 2, returns to retrace his paddleboat route. Although a few of his many digressions don't work (they sometimes sound formulaic or too detailed) most of the narrative is extremely entertaining. Twain seems caught between admiration and disdain for the modern age-but he also rejects over-sentimentality over the past. He writes with beauty and cynicism, verve and humor. Highly recommended!

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