Canoeing with Jose

In this endearing if meandering memoir, Lurie, a creative writing teacher and former wilderness guide, takes readers on a journey of friendship and self-reflection along the Minnesota River. Growing up in Minnesota, Lurie got hooked on canoeing during five summers on the Canadian border as a teen. In 2002, while teaching in a journalism program for Native American students, Lurie met a troubled teen named Jose Perez and encouraged him to read Canoeing with the Cree, an account of how two men paddled down the Minnesota River in 1930 that Lurie had read himself as a teen. Five years later, Perez, now 20, and Lurie, now in his 30s, agreed to make the 2,250-mile trek from Breckenridge, Minn., to the Hudson Bay. The ensuing story of challenge and endurance is packed with adventure (they paddled through thunderstorms, and were often stopped by police officers who thought they were dodging warrants), although the narrative goes off in several directions. Lurie’s friendship with Jose deepens as Lurie confronts his divorce and the loose ends of his turbulent personal life. Lurie writes of his desire “to be like the water, which always traveled but was never lost.” Lurie is a thoughtful writer, and he succeeds in imparting wonderful observations. (Sept.)