The setting is the Georgia wilderness, where the states most remote white-water river awaits. In the thundering froth of that river, in its echoing stone canyons, four men on a canoe trip discover a freedom and exhilaration beyond compare. And then, in a moment of horror, the adventure turns into a struggle for survival as one man becomes a human hunter who is offered his own harrowing … deliverance.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
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I read this book about 45 years ago just before it was made into a movie. I read it in one sitting – couldn’t stop till I finished at 2:00 AM.
Classic men on their own into the wilderness, but nature is essentially uncaring and wild, and demolishes them. Lovely tradition in America literature, that, as personified by terrifying subhuman hillbillies.
Also, who is running James Dickey’s BookBub page? Inquiring minds and all that.
The perfect balance between literary and genre fiction … a page-turner when I first read it at age sixteen and no less of a page turner for me now at the end of my forties.
Much better then the movie, Sorry Burt.
I usually like to read the book before viewing the movie, but with it’s popularity it was hard to create an opinion that is not related to the Academy Award nominated film. This book was fantastic!
James Dickey does an excellent job of developing the characters, scenery, and emotion in this book. Written from the view point of Ed, our hero and …
Being from North Georgia and frequenting the river in question really brings this one home.
Written by preeminent author/poet James Dickey captures the reality, both beautiful and brutal in breathtaking natural scenes and unnatural barbarity of mountain environs and wicked ways.
One of the top four hundred movies ever made that also captured the …
if you saw the movie this is still a great read
Certain scenes in the book I found myself holding my breath as I read. One of my all-time favorite books. You may think you’ve experienced Deliverance if you saw the movie but it doesn’t compare to the novel.
I read the book because I enjoyed the movie. The book is much different…much more subdued and psychological…more of a character study than an adventure story. I was a bit let down by the ending, but was overall impressed with the writing and story overall.
like a painting done with words.
Great story, writing leaves a bit to be desired.
Probably your local forest rangers could share a multitude of similar tales of the unskilled yet over confidant woodsmen who risk death and bodily harm in the wilderness every year. The story though familiar is still engaging due to the excellent writing of James Dickey. An enjoyable read! Check it out.
Ok, I know everyone has seen the movie and I know readers always say the book is better. But, the book is better, especially if you’ve seen the movie.
It had much more detail than the movie. It left one with a somewhat sad realization how a man’s ego can lead him to a place out of his control, out of his league and how sharp a knife-edge of life and death he walks.
I liked this book. It’s great suspence.
Book is better than the movie
Rivetting