From: Brian
Kimberling <brian_kimberling@yahoo.com>
The vividest description
of the river I ever saw forms a short paragraph in one of the shorter
stories in Peter Taylor's last collection, "The Oracle at Stoneleigh
Court." I think it refers to the river as "stupid" and
possibly "sluggish" as well.
I'd look it up for
you, but I live in Prague, and Taylor was never really a smash hit here.
Probably doesn't read so well in Czech, either.
While on the subject,
another, earlier Peter Taylor story, In the Miro District, features
a crusty old confederate veteran hiding from murderous Klansmen in a
bog and hallucinating all kinds of beasts rising from the mud of the
Mississippi during the tremors of 1812. It is fantastic stuff - the
prose, the character's visions - and if you are dredging all the river-related
reading you can find (just a guess) you should not miss it!