Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River [Hardcover]

"Beth Kephart's Flow is just a sumptuous book--haunting, poetic, lit up with gems of beauty and history. We engorge ourselves on materialism. The legacy of our generation will be our consumerism. But Flow and its exquisite evocation of the Schuylkill River reminds us that nature still trumps everything. Which makes the book all the more beautiful and all the more rare." Buzz Bissinger, author of A Prayer for the City and Friday Night Lights "Kephart...provides an intimate meditation on the Schuylkill's story." Philadelphia Style "In this autobiographical treatment, Kephart uses short lyrical essays and black-and-white photographs to let the Schuylkill River recount its life, it's origin in creation and geography, its place in history, the famous personalities who graced its shores and crossed its water and its place in the hearts of Philadelphians who rely on it for water, recreation and solace." The Patriot-News "Flow is a poetic meditation on the Schuylkill River's place in Philadelphia's history, transporting you back in time." Filmbill June 2007 "Beth Kephart anthropomorphizes the Schuylkill and gives her reactions to monumental and everyday events--the building of the Water Works, a bridge suicide, men fishing--in brief bursts of prose. Some results are giddily lyrical...Other entries dangle historical tidbits... This slim valentine can be silly and sentimental, but there are enough direct hits...to redeem it." Philadelphia Magazine "In her new book, Devon's Beth Kephart poeticizes Philadelphia through the keen observations of its eldest resident, the Schuylkill River, which has long served as the city's source of water, power, industry, and beauty. Flow adapts the river's motion, winding past local events and retelling them with an imaginative and poignant voice." Main Line Times "Kephart's well-researched essays provide historical nuance...a prescient contemporary account of the city's history. But it is the narrative poetry, in the taut female voice of the river, which makes this a book to descend into, slowly; with all senses at the ready...Kephart is a master not only of descriptive memory, but of constructing an existential vocabulary." The Philadelphia City Paper "It goes proudly on your coffee table to advertise your intelligent indie reading." aroundphilly.com "I'll see the Schuylkill differently on my ride home tonight, and maybe it'll be a closer friend now." UWISHUNU "From the first footsteps of Native Americans, to wars, progress, industrialization, and beyond, the river serves up commentary with a mix of plain-spoken facts, dramatic embellishments and historical illustrations. The result is an engrossing and unusual take on the area." Arrive "An admirer transforms her glimpses of the life of the Schuylkill--once wild then pressed into human service, and now rediscovered for its remnant beauty--into spare prose that is often moving, whether or not you live in Philly." Orion "I can't imagine a more beautiful book about a river than Flow." University City Review "Kephart gives the Schuylkill a voice, a memory, a melancholic sensibility. She has given us a finely-tuned and moving work of art, an exquisite book of loss and wanting. In 76 narrative poems and nearly as many short historical essays, Kephart returns the 'hidden river' to its place in our hearts." Context