The river why / David James Duncan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Duncan, David James.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fishing stories.

Genre:

Fishing stories.

Fiction.

Physical Description:

294 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

San Francisco : Sierra Club Books, [1983]

Summary:

Since its Publication by Sierra Club Books two decades ago, The River Why has become a classic, standing with Norman Maclean's A River Runs through It as the most widely read fiction about fly fishing of our era. This captivating and exuberant tale is told by Gus Orviston, an irreverent young flyfisherman and one of the most appealing heroes in contemporary American fiction. Leaving behind a madcap, fishing-obsessed family, Gus decides to strike out on his own, taking refuge in a secluded cabin on a remote riverbank to pursue his own flyfishing passion with unrelenting zeal. But instead of finding fishing bliss, Gus becomes increasingly troubled by the degradation of the natural world around him and by the spiritual barrenness of his own life. His desolation drives him on a reluctant quest for self-discovery and meaning -- ultimately fruitful beyond his wildest dreams. Unexpected companions along the way include Gus's precocious, water-phobic brother, Bill Bob; a sage old Warm Springs Indian named Thomas Bigeater; a flamboyant, self-styled philosopher and his wise dog, Descartes; and, most important, a divinely beautiful and enigmatic fisher-woman who sets Gus the astonishing task of tracking a spawning salmon upriver in the dead of night.

Here, then, is a funny, sensitive, unforgettable story about the relationships among men, women, the environment, and the human soul -- about love of place, love of people, and the spiritual forces that firmly join them. Stylistically adept and ambitious in scope, The River Why is a touching and powerful novel by an important voice in American fiction. In a new Afterword, written for this twentieth-anniversary edition, David James Duncan reflects on the writing of the novel and on the surprising link between fishing and wisdom.

Contents:

Book 1 The Compleat Angler

1 "Gus the Fish" 3

2 The Rogue River Fishing War 10

3a Concerning Statistics 14

3b Some Biographical Statistics 17

4 Statistical Improbabilities 20

5a The Great Izaak Walton Controversy: the Parental Version 29

5b The Great Izaak Walton Controversy: My Own Rendition 36

6 Excerpts from the God-notebook 40

7 Being "Educated" and "Gittin' Brung Up" 45

8 The "Ideal Schedule" 56

9 Voiding My Rheum 59

Book 2 The Undoing of a Scientific Angler

1 Where I Lived and What I Lived For 70

2 Water on the Brain 83

3 Anvil Abe and the Phantom Fisherman 90

4 Fainting Before the Duel 98

5 I Reckon 106

6 Anamnesis 113

Book 3 Characters in Nature

1 The River Writes 130

2 Neighbors 143

3 The Warble of the Water Owl 149

4 Eddy 157

5 Jesus Keeps Fishing 163

6 Descartes 170

7 Philosophizing 176

8 Little, But Strong 184

9 Closing the Door 191

Book 4 The Line of Light

1 Hemingway 200

2 Dutch 208

3 Nick the Convert 220

4 The Trek 233

5 The Raven and the [characters not reproducible] 244

6 Googler and Mangler 252

7 Trick or Treat 260

8 The Line of Light 268

Book 5 At the End of the Line

Heart Work: An afterword, twenty years later 294.

ISBN:

0871563215 :

OCLC:

8387325