The Longest Silence: A Life in Fishing

The writing ranks with the best of angling literature. We took this book with us on an extended bicycle camping tour of Hokkaido and read it aloud in the evenings. In a similar vein as Roderick Haig-Brown, McGuane is one of those rare angling authors who is able to write about elite angling experiences without coming off as elitist. Chalk stream in England, saltwater flats, west coast salmon and more, the stories in the volume describe in fluid prose some of the best the fly-angling life has to offer. Belongs on every serious fisherman's shelf.

A delightful book. I must confess I have fished all the same places, know all the names he drops and share his devotion to the magic of fly fishing and clean, moving waters. Some of his stuff is just too much for me but nobody questions his abilities so my opinion is not worth much. But we ARE on the same wave length when it comes to the waters he mentions, the fish he respects and the terrific characters he has known and fished with.Been there.

Rather than give you a "macro" review, I cover my favorite chapters of this book in sort of a micro-review fashion:Back in Ireland - is as pointed and sharp as a tack. The story is as much about a time as it is about a place. McGuane reminds us that the intersection of time and space is unique as a snowflake hitting the warm ground.Twlight in the Buffalo Paddock - McGuane takes us into a seemingly sterile (e.g., there's no fish in those casting ponds) and off-beat, urban setting in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. He points out the art as well as the pointlessness of false casting to plastic-ringed targets at a time when fly fishing is being passed up by faster, more extreme sports like skateboarding and BMX. But even in this setting, McGuane finds his perfect moment. It's a moment that draws many fly anglers back to their sport: "The ponds have gone silver. The emptiness around the few members who remain seems to make their casting more singular, more eloquent."Henry's Fork - The author fishes the Henry's Fork of the Snake River with guide Mike Lawson. The essay turns into a bit of a rant with McGuane calling Idaho's Department of Fish and Game to the carpet. And like metaphoric bad-dog, rubbing their nose in a big pile of silt they left in the river.World-Record Dinner - reads like a minor treatise on fly fishing the flats for mutton snapper. The mutton snapper as McGuane describes it -"not at all handsome, with its large and vacant-looking head" - earns more than respect - "difficult to deceive and very spooky" as an angler's quarry.The Sea-Run Fish - is the most sharply pointed satire of the book, with a laser-like focus on an entire ontology of misdirected fly anglers. McGuane breaks them down into: The Rich, Old and New, Corporate Groups, Time Sharers, Spongers (which he claims membership to), and The Poacher. With some amount of after thought, he includes Steelheaders ("The first group, distinctly, are the original California steelheaders emanating from the Bay Area."), lodge denizens, and the roaming sponge.I loved his take on fishing lodges: "The lodge has the unenviable job of maintaining living facilities, waterborne transport, and guides, as well as some level of communications and emergency medical capability in remote places. The logistics underlying this can resemble what in military parlance is called a task force, but it enables one to arrive with clothes and tackle only, and depart with no responsibilities for maintenance and other ordeals of the off-season, a real luxury. The downside is that it's not cheap and you never know who you'll be bunking with.... and if you travel long enough to so-called destination angling, you will meet some unparalleled Twinkies and monsters."I could go on citing stories and pulling quotes from this book. But, instead I'll finish with 3 words of advice - get his book.

Thomas McGuane is a fantastic writer but his use of $20 words gets in the way of a book that is just stories about fishing trips. I enjoyed the book but not as much as I have other similar authors.

Lovers of fishing and outdoors essays will enjoy this book. While McGuane doesn't have the laid-back humor of Gierach, he has a great eye for detail and his prose immerses you into his scenes.As an example, here's an excerpt I like from a story about fishing in early spring:"This was a wonderful time to find yourself astream. You didn't bump into experts. You didn't bump into anybody. You could own this place in your thoughts as completely as a Hudson Bay trapper. The strangely human killdeer were all over the place, human in that their breeding activities were accompanied by screaming fights and continuous loud bickering. When they came in for a landing, their wings set in a quiet glide while their legs ran frantically in midair. The trees in the slower bends were in a state of pick-up sticks destruction from the activity of beavers. A kingfisher flew over my head with a trout hanging from its bill. I came around a bend without alerting three more geese, floating in a backwater, sound asleep with their heads under their wings. I decided not to wake them. I ended my day right there."Great cure for cabin fever, and very rereadable.

I have this book in every available format and recently bought it for my Kindle while traveling. It is one that a read at least once a year. McGuane has a way of looking at things that encourages the reader to think about their own fishing life, occasionally in a new light. The way he downplays the importance of being a studied entomologist as a requirement of being a fly angler made me laugh. His views on how we have treated the environment are spot on yet so concisely stated that the reader scarcely knows an issue has been addressed until further reflection. If you fish and enjoy reading about it get this book and keep it handy.

Very well written and a diverse range of stories from an obviously accomplished angler and author. Sorry it was no longer.

Book arrived in a timely manner & the product was as described. Lovely little story to this book, small font is my only complaint but otherwise this is one for the collection, very nice...

This book was a gift for my elder son's birthday. He said that he loved the intelligence, the wit and the sober style of writing.

Amazing book for any angler or open minded non angler.

Really good condition thanks

Brilliant

A Xmas gift which will b appreciated

Just what it says on the tin - an angling saga. Fulfilment up to Amazon's usual high standard.

Great

I really love this hardcover. They book itself is great as well.

All good. Took a but to get here, but all good.

Was a dull book!!

Excellent

Good reading.

V.good