Ben McGrath’s affecting book about the canoe journey of a lifetime calls to mind “Into the Wild” and “Nomadland”
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskHe cut a rare figure as he travelled on the Missouri, Yellowstone, Ohio and Hudson rivers. A bearded giant of a man, Conant resembled “Santa Claus crossed with a lobster, in overalls”, according to one observer. He sipped Tabasco sauce from the bottle and swapped his boots between his feet for extra wear, like a motorist rotating tyres.
Before 1999 Conant’s life meandered like the rivers he came to love. A military brat, he grew up in middle-class comfort and went to university. Yet signs of alcoholism and mental illness flashed. Medical schools turned him down. He spent time roughnecking in the American West and in the navy. Bar fights and a drunk-driving arrest kept him from finding respectability, for all that he was educated and thoughtful. So he took to the water.
Mr McGrath tells Conant’s story in an affecting book that calls to mind “Into the Wild” and “Nomadland”, two other peripatetic tales. Little distinguished a dull day in the canoe from an exquisite one. Simple pleasures abounded, like the way a slow drift south extended the autumn foliage. Conant knew if he stayed anywhere too long he might seem an awkward vagrant. “He often departed towns abruptly, without proper goodbyes, seizing on the weather as an excuse,” writes Mr McGrath.
Conant was planning his retirement when the author met him by chance. His final river voyage was to take him from Canada to Florida. But in 2014 he disappeared near North Carolina’s border with Virginia; his body has not been found. This gives the story a melancholy air. Yet “Riverman” also brims with the rich possibilities of a fully lived life and expectations exceeded. One fellow voyager who drifted alongside Conant for less than an hour remembered him keenly.
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