CRAZY FOR RIVERS Flyfishing California & NW BARICH

CRAZY FOR RIVERS

by Bill Barich

The Lyons Press; about 6x9 inches, 80 pages. 

1999 Trade Hardback Edition in NEW condition.

Dustjacket in NEW condition..

Bill Barich casts such deft prose that the thinness of Crazy for Rivers might feel like a disappointment to some readers; at 80 pages in length, you wish there were simply more of it. Barich's skill flows from the way he can layer a book, pulling in disparate venues--as he did so masterfully in Laughing in the Hills with death, mourning, horseracing, and the Renaissance--to form a three-dimensional whole; when he limits himself to a narrower scope, his pool seems achingly fished out.

Still, what there is here is choice, elegant, and even stark. When Barich writes about fly-fishing and the pursuit of trout he's, of course, writing about more, much more: family, friendship, loyalty, identity, obsession, even midlife crisis. For all the good fishing and fish stories he offers, it is ultimately the reeling in of the spirit that becomes his best catch: "I thought about the friends, lovers, and family I had fished with," he writes in his notebook on his last night out: "where they were now and what they might be doing....It must all be catch-and-release in the end, I thought, all part of a flow whose essence we can never truly grasp." Perhaps we can't. But at least Barich provides an angle on it. --

"That autumn, I went a little crazy for rivers," writes Bill Barich, and this charming volume captures the essence of this obsession. The hours he spent on various streams became a kind of meditation on family, friends, and the natural world. To anyone who remembers the infinite patience of a grandfather on a lake, or the romance of a mountain getaway with a new girlfriend; to anyone who can recall each fish caught on days that were far too hot, or way too cold, or on rivers too crowded or in canyons too steep; to anyone who has appreciated the trust of an age-old fishing partner, or marveled at the beauty of a leaping trout - to anyone, in fact, who has ever gone crazy for rivers, Bill Barich's wonderful memories of a season on the water and a lifetime of fishing will seem both touching and wise.

This little book is a gem.

Thank you and good luck!

Mylar dustjacket cover is available for this book for an additional $1.00 (HIGHLY RECOMMEND COVERS - protects BOTH the jacket and the book!!!).

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