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The Secret Knowledge of Water: Discovering the Essence of the American Desert by Craig Childs
msgtdameron's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.25
This is more a love poem to water rather than a book about water and the desert. There is just enough science so it's a non-fiction work. But Childs has a love affair with desert water; from rain filled rock bowls of water, to small seeps that drip at a drop a second to all day to fill a one quart water bottle, to small streams that come and go. These small streams sometimes run all year this year and the next don't run at all. Some run each day from dusk till dawn. Some run every year but disappear after only a few mile or a few tens of meters. Then Childs talks about floods and the desert. Floods can and do kill each time the wash, arour, stream, or dry bed floods. It is in the flood chapters that one see's how abusive Childs relationship with water is. Until he talks of floods he seems a very conscientious and driven scientist. He loves finding water and writing about his finds. Going into the water and feeling it. The different tastes of wild water. Following streams to there heads and then climbing into the cave they spring from. Following the oral histories of the native tribes about where and what each stream and it's spirits flow from and where they go. All of this is described as a lover/poet rather than a scientist. Then comes floods and we read and see that this relationship is really abusive. The chapters on floods show a man almost being killed by two different floods but he says he will continue back to chase those flood waters. (The second flood story is the Epilogue and the flood almost kills Childs again. ) Childs lives in an abusive relationship with his lover. He will chase her across miles and miles of desert and when she gets to violent he stays and lives with her violence. Just as an abused man or women stays with their abuser. It's love and it can be romantic and very passionate, but if he is not careful she will kill him. One day he will be a half second slow and end up as the victims of the Bright Angel flood that he writes about. Great read.
inthecommonhours's review
A gift from Al & Ali when we left Oregon. Really enjoyed what I read, so I need to return to it.
mattstebbins's review
5.0
I wasn't sure what to expect, based on what other Childs I'd read, and I think I'm glad for that. No expectation could have prepared me for the combination of lyricism and science, of prose poetry and succinct description. Nor could I have adequately prepared for how it forced me to see places I'd long ago considered homes in a new way, to better understand them and the dynamics of water at play.
This is certainly a work I'll come back to, and one I want to keep processing.
[5 stars for air, sun, sand—and especially water.]
This is certainly a work I'll come back to, and one I want to keep processing.
[5 stars for air, sun, sand—and especially water.]
prcizmadia's review
4.0
This book actually took me a few years to read. I gave it a go multiple times but repeatedly stalled out. Childs' writing is as beautiful and absorbing as ever, I just really needed to have some degree of desert familiarity to really feel what he was saying on a personal level. I have that now.
I love the way this book is structured and executed, exploring water from the tiniest trace elements that exist in the harsh desert climate, to the supernatural destructive power of angry gods raging through pliant canyons. I have so much more to consider on a spiritual sense here. I had always figured myself obsessed with the rocks and structure of canyon country, not considering the influence of water-- how every structure, flow and organism of the desert is there because of water and reacting to it's presence or absence. Maybe that's what I'm really obsessed with the reliant towards. Praying to a false god this whole time.
I love the way this book is structured and executed, exploring water from the tiniest trace elements that exist in the harsh desert climate, to the supernatural destructive power of angry gods raging through pliant canyons. I have so much more to consider on a spiritual sense here. I had always figured myself obsessed with the rocks and structure of canyon country, not considering the influence of water-- how every structure, flow and organism of the desert is there because of water and reacting to it's presence or absence. Maybe that's what I'm really obsessed with the reliant towards. Praying to a false god this whole time.
bekahbeth's review
5.0
A read so delicious and ecstatic, I had to take my time and savor every word. Definitely my favorite non-fiction read of 2020 (regardless of the fact that I didn't finish until 2021), this book carried me through some very tough times with the sheer force of its overwhelming beauty. My hat is off and my bow deep to Craig Childs with admiration for this incredible reflection of the desert and its water. I only wish I could write a more appropriate tribute, but I'm left feeling almost speechless. Perhaps the water is doing all the speaking for me.
kittkattsnacck's review
dark
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
This is an incredible look at some of the most mysterious places on Earth. I love the combination of narrative elements and the scientific facts. The dichotomy between the unemotional description of natural history and the almost spiritual experience and mystical elements of water.
I did find some of the descriptions dull, specifically because I do not already know what the flora looks like and the book does not spend much time on the look of them. Rather simply naming a few plants in quick succession to describe the landscape.
I did find some of the descriptions dull, specifically because I do not already know what the flora looks like and the book does not spend much time on the look of them. Rather simply naming a few plants in quick succession to describe the landscape.