One Long River of Song: Notes on Wonder

by Brian Doyle, David James Duncan (Introduction)

Overview

From a "born storyteller" (Seattle Times), this playful and moving bestselling book of essays invites us into the miraculous and transcendent moments of everyday life.

When Brian Doyle passed away at the age of sixty after a bout with brain cancer, he left behind a cult-like following of devoted readers who regard his writing as one of the best-kept secrets of the twenty-first century. Doyle writes with a delightful sense of wonder about the sanctity of everyday things, and about love and connection in all their forms: spiritual love, brotherly love, romantic love, and even the love of a nine-foot sturgeon.

At a moment when the world can sometimes feel darker than ever, Doyle's writing, which constantly evokes the humor and even bliss that life affords, is a balm. His essays manage to find, again and again, exquisite beauty in the quotidian, whether it's the awe of a child the first time she hears a river, or a husband's whiskers that a grieving widow misses seeing in her sink every morning. Through Doyle's eyes, nothing is dull.

David James Duncan sums up Doyle's sensibilities best in his introduction to the collection: "Brian Doyle lived the pleasure of bearing daily witness to quiet glories hidden in people, places and creatures of little or no size, renown, or commercial value, and he brought inimitably playful or soaring or aching or heartfelt language to his tellings." A life's work, One Long River of Song invites readers to experience joy and wonder in ordinary moments that become, under Doyle's rapturous and exuberant gaze, extraordinary.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316492881
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	12/08/2020
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	107,343
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Brian Doyle (1956-2017) was born in New York and attended the University of Notre Dame. He worked at U.S. Catholic Magazine, Boston College Magazine and, up until his death, was the editor of Portland Magazine. He wrote a number of novels and works of nonfiction, and his essays appeared in the New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Orion, American Scholar, America Magazine, and many more. He won the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, the 2017 John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Nature Writing, the Oregon Book Award, three Pushcart Prizes, among others, and had multiple essays included in Best American Essays.

Table of Contents

Foreword David James Duncan: "A Mystical Project Born of Joy and Desperation" xv

I That the Small Is Huge, That the Tiny Is Vast, That Pain Is Part and Parcel of the Gift of Joy, and That This Is Love

Joyas Voladoras 3

A Shrew 6

Tigers 8

Leap 11

Two Hearts 14

The Deceased 16

Eating Dirt 18

The Anchoviad 20

Illuminos 22

II There Was a Kid Who Was and Isn't But Is

Times Tables 27

My Devils 28

We Did 31

The Sea 34

Catch 36

The Meteorites 40

First Kiss 51

[Silence] 52

The Final Frontier 57

Jones Beach 60

The Wonder of the Look on Her Face 61

The Old Typewriter in the Basement 63

The Old Methodist Church on Vashon Island 66

III We Can Take Off Our Masks, or, If We Can't Do That, We Can Squawk Through the Holes in Them. A Squawk Is Better Than Nothing

Testimonio 71

Mea Culpa 73

Yes 76

Brian Doyle Interviews Brian Doyle 81

Pants: A Note 90

20 Things the Dog Ate 92

The Daoine Sídbe 94

Angeline 97

The Way We Do Not Say What We Mean When We Say What We Say 99

On Not "Beating" Cancer 101

The Hawk 103

The Praying Mantis Moment 105

IV This Blistering Perfect Terrible World

Heartchitecture 109

The Greatest Nature Essay Ever 114

The Creature Beyond the Mountains 116

Hoop 125

Our Daily Murder 127

Because It's Hard 130

Irreconcilable Dissonance 133

Lost Dog Creek 136

Raptorous 138

An Leabharlann 140

The Bullet 142

Fishering 145

Tyee 147

Everyone Thinks That Awful Comes by Itself, But It Doesn't 148

The Four Gospels 150

God 153

V We Are Better Than We Think

Clairtonica Street 157

Dawn and Mary 158

His Last Game 160

Memorial Day 163

100th Street 165

God Again 167

Beer with Peter 169

The Lair 172

A Song for Nurses 174

Cool Things 176

Address Unknown 179

Hawk Words 181

Bird to Bird 183

To the Beach 185

VI I Walked Out So Full of Hope I'm Sure I Spilled Some by the Door

Chessay 191

Lines Hatched on the Back Porch of Eudora Welty's House in Jackson, Mississippi 193

Joey's Doll's Other Arm 195

The Room in the Firehouse 198

Selections from Letters and Comments on My Writing 200

Billy Blake's Trial 202

On All Souls Day 217

Two Anesthesiologists 219

Joey 221

A Prayer for You and Yours 222

His Listening 227

His Weirdness 229

The Tender Next Minute 232

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Manifestation of Chenrezig, Bodhisattva of Compassion, Stops the Car Along the Road to Watch Children Play Soccer 233

Two on Two 236

What Were Once Pebbles Are Now Cliffs 238

Last Prayer 240

Gratias Vobis Ago 242

Editorial Reviews

"Astonishing... gorgeous... Doyle was a writer 'made of love and song and amusement.' Every living thing intrigued him and was worthy of his powerful capacity for study and his equally powerful capacity for celebration."—Margaret Renkl, New York Times

"Brian Doyle took on the everyday and he suffused it, every last drop of it, with a redefining soulfulness... This posthumous collection will leave you marveling and wiping away the occasional tear. Certainly you will spill ink on its pages—starring and underlining, sprinkling exclamations up and down the margins... Over and over, Doyle's musings are canticles of joy, punctuated with occasional double-shots of heartbreak and humility. It's the textured layering, the leap from shadow to light, that keeps the reader alert, and ever absorbing. Always, emphatically, there comes wisdom; it's a signature move, one you can count on. Have your pens aimed and ready. It's a gospel of the ordinary, the shoved-aside, the otherwise overlooked. And at the heart of it, that ineffable and necessary unction, a holiness you can all but hold in your palms."—Barbara Mahany, Chicago Tribune

"A final collection of Doyle's lyrical, sometimes mystical pieces about life and its gifts. Doyle often used his Catholicism to explore the human and natural worlds, but this is perhaps the most generous, universal 'religious writing' you'll ever read."—Bethanne Patrick, Washington Post

"Both ecstatic and sober...This posthumous collection dances on the edge of mortality, tossing out exaltations and questions, and offering a fresh, playful, slant on spiritual writing...a celebration of life, love, and waking each day."—Jane Ciabattari, BBC

"The first pleasure of reading Doyle lies in being swept away by the deft melding of his two most distinctive qualities, his sentences and his sensibility. How he loved sentences. And how he loved the world. Form and content never fit more hand in glove...I don't know a writer who more reliably or with such seeming ease plucks genuine epiphanies fresh from the ether. The ubiquity of these is testament to Doyle's craft or, perhaps, the quality of his attention...One Long River of Song demonstrates what Doyle's writing has always demonstrated, that when you find the courage to pay attention and be open to love, you can trust that 'doing your chosen work with creativity and diligence will shiver people far beyond your ken.'"—Scott F. Parker, The Oregonian

"A wonder-filled book... Doyle's essays often wriggle with wild miracles... Doyle's greatest gift may be the quiet wisdom that grows out of his senses of humor and humility and gratitude... Reading this collection of essays will awaken readers to the everyday wonders of saying yes."—Tom Montgomery Fate, The Christian Century

"Brian's glowing essays create a vision of what a good person might be, what a good life surely is, a larger story of the transformative power of joyful gratitude."—Kathleen Dean Moore, Orion Magazine

"One Long River of Song celebrates life in all its iterations. Remarkable for their kindness and intelligence, their humanity and humor, these essays are a thoughtful antidote for the cheap cynicism present in so much of the media we consume."—Ann Cannon, Salt Lake Tribune

"The essays in One Long River of Song are truly staggering—as close as stones in our palms, and as vast as the sky. Brian Doyle's voice is full of tender pivots, keen wit, and startling joy, summoning all of us to pay more passionate attention to the world."—Leslie Jamison, author of the New York Times bestsellers TheEmpathy Exams and The Recovering

"A posthumous collection of stunning mystical prose...Doyle's prose is so expansive and dripping with visceral detail that even the briefest vignettes are often a wondrous adventure. This brilliant compendium of spiritual musings will resonate with people of any faith—or of none."—Kirkus (starred review)

"A generous, posthumous collection [with] the rhythm of poems and the lyricism of songs...infused with qualities of spirit, goodness, and grace. Doyle was a wonderful stylist...he is generous, almost profligate in filling his work with [love]...readers will be equally grateful for this lovely book and its beautiful contents."—Michael Cart, Booklist (starred review)

"An excellent, thought-provoking collection of essays that is likely to make you run out and pick up anything else he's written."—Ray Walsh, Lansing State Journal

"Doyle's curiosity is insatiable and his self-described Celtic-mystic disposition spots the transcendent regularly. As much haunted by the language of James Joyce as the lessons of Jesus, Doyle sees and celebrates what happens every day in each essay of this eclectic collection. This 'best-of' should enlarge his circle of admirers."—Publishers Weekly

"Dazzling... Doyle's writing bursts with vivid descriptions...a renewed opportunity for more readers to discover the insight and humanity of his work...Doyle's brand of theology will appeal to fans of the work of writers like Anne Lamott...readers fortunate enough to discover the many pleasures of Brian Doyle's work here will be grateful, too, for that encounter."—Harvey Freedenberg, Shelf Awareness

From the Publisher

09/16/2019

The life and work of Doyle (A Book of Uncommon Prayer), the late writer and long-serving editor of Portland Magazine, are honored with this fine collection of his essays. Longtime friend and writer David James Duncan (The Brothers K) begins with an intimate introduction that situates Doyle as a literary cult figure: not popularly known, but passionately admired by some for his distinctive punctuation-defying verbal flow and his everyday epiphanies. Doyle, who died of brain cancer in 2017, trained his perceptive eye on a wide range of subjects during his career, but frequently wrote on wildlife (such as hummingbirds and sturgeon), the nature of family, and the relationship between creativity and spirituality. Doyle’s curiosity is insatiable (“you see an owl launch at dusk, like a burly gray dream against the last light, you flinch a little, and are awed...”) and his self-described Celtic-mystic disposition spots the transcendent regularly (“Time stutters and reverses and it is always yesterday and today”). As much haunted by the language of James Joyce as the lessons of Jesus, Doyle sees and celebrates what happens every day in each essay of this eclectic collection. This “best-of” should enlarge his circle of admirers. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

12/01/2019

Philosopher Michel de Montaigne wrote essays in the 16th century as a form of self-exploration, seeking to examine small incidents in life in ways that drew unintuitive or enlightening conclusions. Nowhere is this endeavor better exemplified in recent times than with the writings of Doyle (1956–2017). In this collected volume of some of his most appreciated work, we see Doyle at his most mundane and profound. These two extremes, he suggests, are what make up the fabric of our existence. Doyle touches on the inherent spirituality in encounters he has with animals, trees, and people. As a positivist, Doyle focuses on the wondrous things that we have to be thankful for. Doyle was an unapologetic Catholic but not dogmatic; he saw holiness in a burbling stream, in the rapid beat of a hummingbird's heart, and in the smile of his children. VERDICT Doyle imparts a sense of breathless curiosity and joy in this blend of spirituality and philosophy; probing readers will find surprises and solace.—Brian Renvall, Mesalands Community Coll., Tucumcari, NM

Library Journal

★ 2019-10-06
A posthumous collection of stunning mystical prose from the award-winning author and editor.

Doyle (1956-2017) was well known as the longtime editor of Portland Magazine, but he also published multiple novels (Chicago, 2016, etc.) and numerous volumes of short stories, "proems" (hybrids of prose and poems), and essays. Though his nonfiction appeared in many renowned publications, including the New York Times, the Atlantic, and Harper's, he had a cultlike following for his lesser-known writing on spirituality. After Doyle was diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor in late 2016, David James Duncan, a friend, novelist, and essayist, proposed this collection to benefit Doyle's family. While the book may prove to be of financial value to his survivors, the richest beneficiaries will undoubtedly be those who read it. Doyle's spirituality defies categorization. He was raised Catholic and does occasionally draw from that tradition, but his catechism isn't comprised of doctrine or theology. Rather, much like Thornton Wilder's Our Town, Doyle employs the ordinary to catch the reflection of a world that is "still stuffed with astonishments beyond our wildest imagining, which is humbling, and lovely, and maybe the only way we are going to survive ourselves and let everything else alive survive us too." The author looks for God not in a book or a building but in a group of kindergarteners, at the post office, in a doll with one arm. Doyle's mysticism is similar to spiritual writers like Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen, but his prose is informal, instantly relatable, and quite often delightfully unorthodox—e.g., "I am standing in the hospital watching babies emerge from my wife like a circus act." Though each topic spans at most a few pages, Doyle's prose is so expansive and dripping with visceral detail that even the briefest vignettes are often a wondrous adventure.

This brilliant compendium of spiritual musings will resonate with people of any faith—or of none.

Kirkus Reviews