Downriver: Memoir of a Warrior Poet

Ryan McDermott’s memoir is a powerful story, one that begins far before he ever sees a battlefield. Readers follow him from his late adolescence with a stormy family dynamic to his education at West Point, then to the war in Iraq, and further on to the collapse of Wall Street. All these places and times are seen through the eyes of an average American man, making them easy to grasp by any American reader.

McDermott also shows the readers the foibles of his past self, while still showing that self empathy and compassion. For that alone, the book is a commendable memoir, touching and enlightening at once.

But McDermott still goes further. The memoir not only brings readers into the details of his life, but also into the depths of his heart and mind.

When it comes to his heart, the memoir is filled with McDermott’s poetry, from his time at West Point to the war, and then into the present day. All of the poems expose some part of his heart, but what is most intriguing about them is the way readers can see his style shift and his ability grow over the years. The first poems are clearly the work of a youth: they show talent, but some of the technical details and rhymes are clunky. As the years go on and McDermott grows both as a person and a writer, however, the poems grow both subtler and stronger, becoming works of true beauty.

McDermott also shows vulnerability by talking so openly about the therapy he has gone through. While more people are open to talking about both needing and accepting help for mental illness and trauma, there remains a stigma around it, especially for men. Hopefully, McDermott’s openness will convince other men who need such help to explore it, especially other soldiers.

Downriver is a strong and compelling story, made all the more so for being true. Though there are many memoirs published by people whose names most readers will not necessarily be familiar with, this is certainly one you should take the opportunity to pick up. Whether you are a veteran or not, the story will have something to say to you, and may shed light upon a part of the world which is unfamiliar, or at least not familiar enough. Even as modern technology metaphorically shrinks the world, parts of it remain distant when they should be most understood. Downriver may help to bridge one of those gaps.