Thom reviewed The Good Rain by Timothy Egan
Review of 'The Good Rain' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Timothy Egan writes about the northwest with a poetic grace. I first read this shortly after it came out (purchased at Tower Books!), shortly after I moved to the west side of Washington. The author says this hasn't aged well and unfortunately I agree.
The book is a series of articles, loosely following in the footsteps of Theo Winthrop, descendant of John Winthrop (the first governor of Massachusetts Bay). Young Winthrop wrote a book ([b:The canoe and the saddle|8074602|The canoe and the saddle|Theodore Winthrop|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|3345256]) about his experience, and some quoting and contrasting occur. Egan's descriptive language is amazing and often poetic - e.g. instead of describing the omnipresent light rain, he instead repeatedly uses drip, drip, drip.
This beautiful setting is not today's, however - it belongs to a time after eight years of Ronald Reagan and James Watt. Large companies are (and have been) having their way with the …
Timothy Egan writes about the northwest with a poetic grace. I first read this shortly after it came out (purchased at Tower Books!), shortly after I moved to the west side of Washington. The author says this hasn't aged well and unfortunately I agree.
The book is a series of articles, loosely following in the footsteps of Theo Winthrop, descendant of John Winthrop (the first governor of Massachusetts Bay). Young Winthrop wrote a book ([b:The canoe and the saddle|8074602|The canoe and the saddle|Theodore Winthrop|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|3345256]) about his experience, and some quoting and contrasting occur. Egan's descriptive language is amazing and often poetic - e.g. instead of describing the omnipresent light rain, he instead repeatedly uses drip, drip, drip.
This beautiful setting is not today's, however - it belongs to a time after eight years of Ronald Reagan and James Watt. Large companies are (and have been) having their way with the land, taking resources and leaving waste. In the late 1980s, it seemed like this was leading to a dystopia of epic proportions. This narrative reflects on this rather dirty mirror, and makes for (at times) quite depressing reading.
Finally, I found the book a bit more scattered (and more like a series of articles) than I remembered it. Western Washington and the Oregon coast take center stage, with only the Columbia and Okanogan showing any of eastern Washington. Young Winthrop probably didn't go that far, but I wanted more from eastern Washington and Oregon.
Taking this down a peg from my original five star rating, I will probably recommend this to fewer friends than before. Glad I reread it, though, and looking forward to reading more from [a:Timothy Egan|40820|Timothy Egan|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1270092404p2/40820.jpg].