REVIEWS

One Long River of Song

BRIAN DOYLE

Little, Brown, 2019. $27, 272 pages.

WHO WAS Brian Doyle? He was a hilarious writer and a heartbroken man. He was a scamp, and he was as close to a holy man as any of us will ever meet. He wrote like an angel, some say like Faulkner, and he wrote like a fire hose. He was a smitten husband and besotted father, and he was a grateful son—of God and of a journalist named Jim. He wrote profoundly about the mystery of grace, and he wrote as profoundly about newts. He celebrated the brilliance of small children and the ferocity of hawks. He wore a beard, sometimes damp with rueful tears, and wirerimmed glasses with moral lenses. He was in love with the whole world, and in the end the world turned on him, killing him long before his time.

I was friends with Brian, as were many. His friends refused to let his work die. After Brian’s devastating surgery for a brain tumor, David James Duncan asked his permission to put together a collection of his best, most beloved essays. Please understand: Brian had by that time published eight novels, six books of poetry, and fourteen essay collections. Selecting the greatest hits would be a formidable task for the committee of friends: David; Chip Blake, Orion’s editor-in-chief; and Katie Yale, special projects editor at Orion. It speaks worlds about Brian’s beautiful prose that for the “best and most beloved” essays, they would choose no fewer than eighty-one.

Creating a book from a stack of essays requires the mosaic artistry of a stained-glass window. The editors select a piece that is full of light and rich in