No Shortage of Good Days

February 28, 2011
In the same charming style of his previous books, Gierach (Sex, Death, and Fly-Fishing; Still Life with Brook Trout) offers plenty of enthusiasm for nonanglers, but is also full of the firsthand knowledge and sagely guarded secrets that keep fishermen coming back for more. This collection of essays offers envy-inducing travelogues, such as "Baja," "Tennessee," and "Atlantic Salmon," as well as others that focus on the intricacies of "taking someone fishing," such as "The Perfect Host"; others, like "Book Tour," explore the ups and downs of the writing life and publishing business. The most personal look at Gierach, who is both a bamboo-rod snob and free-spirited trout bum, comes in the revealing "Cheating," which covers how anglers "fight over how the fish should be caught" and allows the author to share his biases, transgressions, and some secondhand gems about poaching. No matter the subject, Gierach's prose, complete with catchy one-liners ("the river you see is like a slide show run by a speed freak"; "fishing is like any other quest in the sense that when you finally close the deal, you can be at a loss about what to do next"), combines the naturalist poetics of Norman Maclean and the nascent practicality of Benjamin Franklin.

March 15, 2011

A prolific fly-fishing expert and nature writer dispenses hard-won field-and-stream wisdom.

Few writers, if any, have written about the implications of fly-fishing as eloquently as Ernest Hemingway in The Big Two-Hearted River, but Gierach (Fool's Paradise, 2008, etc.) brings detailed insight and a sense of humor to the subject. With a title taken from an Annie Dillard quote ("There is no shortage of good days; it's good lives that are hard to come by"), the book is a collection of fondly remembered fishing trips and random fishing-related topics, along with miscellaneous other narrative odds and ends thrown in the mix: fishing and firewood, fly-fishing versus bait fishing, fly-fishing's countercultural history, salmon fishing, the experience of fishing with guides and even a random chapter on the perils of combining fishing with the pain-in-the-neck necessity of book tours. The author's strength is his obvious obsessive drive to find the perfect fishing spot and make the perfect cast; his travels take him from his home state of Colorado to Canada, Wisconsin, Washington State and Mexico. While his fisherman's jargon can get a bit too specialist-sounding for non-expert fisherman, Gierach's good for plenty of man-of-the-soil maxims. On the subject of fishing on film: "Fishing is like sex in that it can be anywhere from deeply meaningful to just plain fun to participate in, but it's oddly boring to watch in videos." Though his thoughts occasionally veer off on unforeseeable tangent, even these detours often have a certain charm: One minute he's talking about hooking wild trout in public water; the next, he's on to some old-fashioned transcendentalist contemplation on the frivolity of material wealth.

Gierach's genial campfire manner and woodsy witticisms should hook more than just the average fishing fanatic.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from April 15, 2011
When a fishing writer chooses a passage from Annie Dillards The Writers Life for his books title and quotes Jamaica Kincaid to justify buying a bamboo fly rod, you know you are headed for something completely different. Gierachs thirteenth book gathers 20 essays, with fishing destinations in the American West, Mexico, Canada, and the Great Smoky Mountains. Evocatively illustrated by Glen Wolff, the essays explore several of Gierachs favorite themes: his love of bamboo rods; the challenges of the sport, such as tying and fishing tiny flies; and the rewards to be gained from investing time in learning a fishing technique or a local stream. Essays on book tours and road food give a reality check to these vaunted parts of the writing and traveling life. While Gierach offers plenty of fishing how-to advice, the book is most memorable for the wit and insight he brings to more introspective matters, such as the whys of fishing, the places the sport takes you, and the people you meet. There are many technically correct fishing writers and many with a unique voice, but few bring together these two sides of fishing literature quite like Gierach.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)