Atchafalaya Houseboat: My Years in the Louisiana Swamp Review

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Atchafalaya Houseboat: My Years in the Louisiana Swamp ReviewIt's hard to go wrong with this subject matter, and I would recommend this book wholeheartedly.
But that said, I was a little disappointed in the book, not for what was in it, but for how much more she could have told us. The author has had a rare experience -- who else do you know who has lived on a houseboat in a swamp, without electricity or most modern conveniences, for a decade? Yet I was left feeling that she only related the bare minimum about her years in the swamp. Part of the problem is that the first half of the book appears to contain only her previously-published articles about her life at that time from a small regional magazine, and they are short and lacking a lot of detail. I'm left thinking how much better this book could have been if she had gone back and fleshed those out, adding more information and context. She doesn't discuss how it felt to adjust to such a rustic life, her relationship with the man she shared this life with, or any problems that they encountered, other than their dislike of returning to civilization for supplies every so often. In other words, she doesn't inject much of herself into her descriptions -- her feelings, her hopes or fears.
The second part of the book talks about temporarily working as a cook on a river boat, meeting the man she would later leave Calvin for, and her life since she left the swamp. In many ways, this is the more descriptive part of the book, especially as she details honestly the boredom of riverboat life and the pain of falling in love with another man. I was left imagining what could have been if she had applied the same descriptive style and writing technique to the earlier part of her work.
Again, I am glad I bought this book, but if the author had spent the time beefing up her earlier articles in the first part of the book, when the subject material is far more unusual, I would have given this book a higher rating. There aren't many people who have lived a life like hers, and it's a shame that it isn't more thoroughly described during her swamp years.
Atchafalaya Houseboat: My Years in the Louisiana Swamp OverviewIn the early 1970s, two idealistic young people—Gwen Carpenter Roland and Calvin Voisin—decided to leave civilization and re-create the vanished simple life of their great-grandparents in the heart of Louisiana's million-acre Atchafalaya River Basin Swamp. Armed with a box of crayons and a book called How to Build Your Home in the Woods, they drew up plans to recycle a slave-built structure into a houseboat. Without power tools or building experience they constructed a floating dwelling complete with a brick fireplace. Towed deep into the sleepy waters of Bloody Bayou, it was their home for eight years. This is the tale of the not-so-simple life they made together—days spent fishing, trading, making wine, growing food, and growing up—told by Gwen with grace, economy, and eloquence.Not long after they took up swamp living, Gwen and Calvin met a young photographer named C. C. Lockwood, who shared their "back to the earth" values. His photographs of the couple going about their daily routine were published in National Geographic magazine, bringing them unexpected fame. More than a quarter of a century later, after Gwen and Calvin had long since parted, one of Lockwood's photos of them appeared in a National Geographic collector's edition entitled 100 Best Pictures Unpublished—and kindled the interest of a new generation. That photo and many others by Lockwood are included here.With quiet wisdom, Gwen recounts her eight-year voyage of discovery—about swamp life, wildlife, and herself. A keen observer of both the natural world and the ways of human beings, she transports readers to an unfamiliar and exotic place, preserving her great adventure for those who did not make the trip in person."I [would write] in the stern of our red and green bateau while Calvin was running nets or lines from the bow. Since ink smears when it gets wet, I used pencils on a yellow legal pad propped against the black Mercury outboard motor. Whenever it was time for me to crank the motor and run us to the next line or net, I'd sit on the pad to keep it from blowing away. . . .During the writing process, we carried on our regular conversations. The stories are almost extensions of those conversations, rising and falling with our voices, capturing the essence of our daily lives like our elderberry wine captured the fragrance of April to be released again in October."—from the prologueAUTHOR BIO: Gwen Roland is a writer and editor for the Southern Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program at the University of Georgia in Griffin. She is at work on a novel set one hundred years ago in the Atchafalaya Basin.

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