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!