Trash Fish

October 1, 2008
Keeler loves to fish, and this interweaving of his life story with interludes with line and pole gallops along from episode to episode as life sometimes gets in the way of fishing. And by fishing he doesnt necessarily mean fly-fishing la Compleat Angler (though trout fishing in clear Montana streams is certainly part of the narrative). Learning to fish as a youngster with his father or grandfather, Keeler was treated to trotlines full of catfish and the occasional snapping turtle, using chicken guts and roadkill for bait, or catching pickerel and sunfish in small grassy ponds and chubs in little streams. In and among these piscine memories, Keeler grows up, changes his major from biology to English (due to a weakness in the math department), got married (and went fishing on the honeymoon), joined the Peace Corps and lost his wife (too much fishing), meets and fishes with some Hemingways, and finally marries a woman with no interest in fishing but who loves him anyway. An addictive, faintly mocking memoir.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)