Sunday, December 19, 2010

Winter Reading: Sex, Death, and Fly Fishing

I just finished with Sex, Death, and Fly Fishing by John Gierach and must admit that I really enjoyed the book. The style is that of the narrator relating stories to the read, or as is more often, stories within stories.


One of my favorite chapters was CH 11 Guiding and Being Guided. It tells of Gierach's love of not guiding, and of a situation where he was asked by a friend to fill in and guide a group that uses his friends guide service yearly.  It's a great, and amusing, look into the mind of someone guiding a group that might not, ahem, be the easiest to work with.

I've read some criticism of Gierach's works, namely that the books don't have a "plot." There is no obvious "I was here, I did these things, and then I ended up here." And this is true. Each chapter could be it's own stand alone essay (which I suspect it might have been at one point.)

But if we want to get technical, and say that a good story has a character that develops as the story progresses and that this is what is known as "good plot" then I believe that we have a good plot on our hands. Gierach doesn't show an evolution throughout the book, but throughout each and every chapter.

So your not getting one good story, but a dozen or more, all in one place.

Gierach has been known for years within the fly fishing community, but this was my first exposure to him. It was a good read, and I think that I'll be picking up a few more of his books as a way to hasten the return of Spring.

If interested, here is a link to the book on Amazon. For full disclosure, if you purchase the book through the link, Flyfishinado does get a, shall we say, "thank you" from Amazon. Here's a chance to support your favorite blog (wink) and get a great book!

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