Deliverance by James Dickey

The setting is the Georgia wilderness, where the state's most remote white-water river awaits. In the thundering froth of that river, in its echoing stone canyons, four men on a canoe trip discover a freedom and exhilaration beyond compare. And then, in a moment of horror, the adventure turns into a struggle for survival as one man becomes a human hunter who is offered his own harrowing deliverance.

Hell of a good book.

Beautifully written in a spare and genteel manner. The writing makes the brutality of the story so much more vivid and powerful.

Four, almost five stars. This is a great book. Excellent suspense, character development, good realistic approach to an unusual situation.
Everyone knows the plot, and I am probably alone in not having seen the movie (but I will).
The book is story of four aging, city men who head to the wilderness to canoe down a wild river - basically to do it because they can (or should) before a dam is completed, flooding the valley. By wilderness, I mean the mountains, hick country. Two of the men are bow-hunters (the narrator is less a bow-hunter than a bow-practicer), and they plan to hunt and camp, drink some and have a manly time. They end up having a more manly time than expected, in more ways than expected.
Anyhow, the books reads well - it has a ‘Before' then a chapter each for the three days of the trip, then an ‘After'. It just comes across as a well organised, well thought through book. One I will probably return to again (likely after viewing the movie).
OK just changed it to five stars. Whats not to like, from the transition from Ed's boring office life to being a man of action, to the obvious faults in the main characters, to the excellent speech of the lawmen and locals at the end "He done kilt my brother-in-law", and "Drownded?"