Canoedling in Cleveland
High Praise from Writer’s Digest: We’re excited to report that Canoedling in Cleveland has received high praise from a judge in the 23rd Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards. Issuing 5 points (“outstanding”) in each of the six categories evaluated, this judge concluded with the sentence, “Morris has done a wonderful job, creating a book that deserves a place in every middle school and high school library.”
Meet Jeff, Lori, & Randy + Walter & Sarah, and canoe all the rivers and lakes around Cleveland in 1960! In the summer of 1960 before his senior year in high school, Jeff canoodles friends Randy and Lori into joining him in canoeing every lake and stream around Cleveland. They battle rapids and discover waters poisoned by pollution, and Lori fights for equality with the boys. Jeff and Lori become interested in each other and in learning why their suburb is all white. After a canoeing accident on an angry Lake Erie, they meet Walter Madison from the black part of the city, and Jeff and Lori wonder if they can make him and his friend Sarah a part of their lives. In the end, the pair confront both segregation and pollution in the city.
"In this bittersweet, deeply touching coming-of-age tale . . . their journey becomes as steeped in tender memory as the film Summer of ’42 and as timeless as Huckleberry Finn"—Stanford Pritchard, novelist, poet, playwright; "Morris paints a vivid picture of canoeing up the once-dead Cuyahoga River (now full of life) which famously burned in 1969" —David L. Levy, author of Revolt of the Animals; "I love . . . the unexpected honesty of Jeff’s conversations with Walter: 'You scared me too when I first saw you. . . .' 'Why? . . . ' 'Cause you’re Negro. . . .' 'Why does that scare you?'" —Carolivia Herron, best-selling author of Nappy Hair; "On one level, Richard Morris’s CANOEDLING IN CLEVELAND is a cute, nostalgic story about three teenagers spending the summer of 1960 taking canoe trips. . . . But on another level, the novel is about the racial divide in the suburbs of Cleveland, and Jeff’s growing determination to change the world"—Kathy Cunningham, Goodreads
About Richard A Morris (Washington, DC Author)
When Richard Morris (8/16/43-11/21/17) died suddenly, he had begun his fifth “social justice” novel during the span of a ten-year retirement from his career in the building industry. In addition to the novels, he wrote over two hundred blog posts (www.richardmorrisauthor.wordpress.com/blog) on writing and the promotion of writing, as well as the social justice issues which propelled his stories. At the time of his death, Morris had just completed blog posts related to the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick series on The Vietnam War in which he reviewed each episode, described how his own life fit into the narrative, and commented upon how he and the country had both been on “The Wrong Side of History.” This brought his writing full circle from when he commenced it with a funny but heartrending Cologne No. 10 for Men, which satirized the use of the body count as a means of determining whether your side is winning a war.
In hindsight it may be noted that ten times in his blog posts, Morris wrote about Agent Orange as one of the many lingering tragedies of the Vietnam war. But he never linked to his own narratives that Agent Orange was the presumptive cause of the cancer which had caused his retirement. This was also the cancer that led to an emergency surgery that ended with complications and his death. As part of his writings about war, Morris also produced a CD, Skytroopers: Songs of war, peace, and love from Vietnam (www.cdbaby.com/cd/RichardMorris) of nineteen songs he wrote while serving as a rifle platoon leader with the First Cavalry (Airmobile) Division in Vietnam.
Well Considered and Canoedling in Cleveland were novels Richard Morris wrote which had themes of racial and environmental justice woven into historical thriller and adventure plots. Masjid Morning incorporated Morris’s many years of construction, codes, and zoning experience into an interfaith romance which explores the emotional struggles between religions. Morris’s novels may be found at online bookstores.
