Body of Water

Starred review from July 18, 2016
Dombrowski (Earth Again), a poet and fly-fishing guide, pays a lyrical, genre-defying tribute to the angling legend largely responsible for popularizing the cultish sport of bonefishing: David Pinder Sr., “the head guide and cornerstone of one of the world’s most fabled sporting lodges.” In the throes of depression and financial hardship, Dombrowski accepts a friend’s invitation for an all-inclusive fishing expedition to Grand Bahama Island. He has little idea just how revelatory his journey will prove. Encountering local fishermen and stunning seascapes, as well as embarking on quests for the elusive bonefish—whose lightning speed and uncanny talent for camouflage have earned it the nickname “gray ghost”—Dombrowski gleans many lessons about ecology, economy, and the relationship between the two. Some are cautionary: decades of fishing have severely damaged Pinder’s eyesight, for example, and commercial overdevelopment has led to grave habitat loss for the bonefish and other local species. Yet there is also much to celebrate, including Pinder’s virtuosity with a fly rod and the “philosophical foundation” a life of fishing can provide. Drawing on Caribbean history and the evolution of fly-fishing, and interweaving Pinder’s miraculous memories with his own redemptive story, Dombrowski’s foray into nonfiction proves as thematically complex, finely wrought, and profoundly life-affirming as his poetry.

A poet and Montana-based fly-fishing guide recounts his trip to the Bahamas, where he met an aging guide who taught him about fish and life.In a lyrical if sometimes-overblown account, Dombrowski (Earth Again: Poems, 2013, etc.) loosely links reflections on his experiences catching and releasing bonefish, the history and geography of the Bahamas, the construction of fishing rods, stories he has told his children, and the difference between fishing or hunting for sport and for dinner. At the center of the book are David Pinder and his family. Pinder, retired--or forced out because cataracts restricted his sight--from the Deep Water Cay fishing lodge, where he worked for decades, still has an instinct for where fish are hiding, one he has passed down to some of his many children and grandchildren. Dombrowski regards Pinder, whose "life seems to verge on the rare heroic" and who has spent a lifetime "pursuing not only the seen but the unseen and intuited," with reverence. He accords Pinder's sayings--e.g., "you go looking for this, the ocean gives you that"--mythic significance. The author is fond of metaphors, some of which strain at their seams: a bonefish tail reminds him of "a loose-fitting bracelet affixed to the wrist of a beautiful woman seated at a bar," and the sky at one point looks like "a ten-mile-wide Rothko, the canvas on loan from an archangel." He heads each short chapter with an epigraph from the likes of Zen master Dogen and Christian mystic Meister Eckhart, which, depending on one's point of view, either gives his angling adventures a philosophical slant or makes them sound pretentious. For Dombrowski, the "scarcely edible" bonefish, which he releases within seconds of catching them, are valuable simply because they are so difficult to hunt down. Some may find his demanding prose equally rewarding, while others might prefer the textual equivalent of something closer to a catfish. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2016
Fly-fishing guide and poet Dombrowski's delightfully elegant book about bone fishing in the Bahamas hits all the right points in content and language. His narrative includes gorgeous descriptions of the landscape, the fish, and the work of the legendary guide, David Pinder. In heartfelt passages, Dombrowski writes of his own deep love for the rod and reel and his quest to build a relationship with Pinder, a reticent and self-assured man who is credited with knowing more about the fish than anyone alive. In waters frequented by literary greats like Ernest Hemingway and Zane Grey, Dombrowski is in heady company tackling this subject, but he proves himself more than up to the challenge, effectively not only conveying his passion for the sport but also giving readers a peek into the area's history and Pinder's place within it. This is the stuff of men and boats and saltwater and meditations on what it means to take to the sea in search of one great catch. Have no doubtfishing literature has a new star.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)