Find The Longest Silence: A Life In Fishing Presented By Thomas McGuane Shown In Document

like mcguane's fiction, but i love his nonfiction,
and this may well be his best, My wife bought me this book since Im an avid angler, particularly, a fly fishing enthusiast, Ill start by stating that I think this book is a good read for any fly fishing enthusiast, The enthusiast fly angler will cackle at McGuanes stories both for their humor and humility,

This book is a collection of short stories, Many are fishing stories and some are more philosophical, All are esoteric to a unique bread of angler, Personally, I most enjoyed McGuanes salt water fishing stories, I found them both suspenseful and raw in the way that a Jim Harrison, Cormac McCarthy or Norman McClain story reads, The salmon stories or the philosophical essays were less my cup of tee, Maybe thats because I enjoy fishing for its beautiful and violent nature,

Pick this book up when youre between fiction novels and need a change of scenery, Or, pick it up on a cold rainy day when you cant help but do anything else but think about time spent on the water.
Fishing requiresconcentration and blocks out all distractions and anxiety, Reading about it is almost as effective but I miss the tranquil background of a chuckling trout stream on a summer's day, This is a fine collection of tall tales, beautifully written and capturing the essence of a sport that is also philosophy and religion to many of its followers.
. This book was good. Thats about the easiest way to explain it, There is a central theme to this collection of short stories, and that theme is tied into the title of the book,

Honestly, I almost gave up reading the book after several of the saltwater fishing tales that were set against the backdrop of locales that I will never be lucky enough to venture into.
However, McGuane's passion is translated through his writing, and I am glad I finished the entire collection of short stories,

The opening story that hearkened back to Michigan, and the last story about the interaction with his son were probably the most memorable stories for me.


This is a definite addition to the armchair angler's shelf, I must declare my vested interest I love fly fishing,

However, this book is so much more than a description of a mans odyssey amid beautiful fly fishing landscapes, Its a literary giant. Its so wellwritten that at times I had to pause, and reread the passage Id just read, Its that good.

Evocative, tranquil, philosophical, at times funny, and so well written that I wanted to be where the words on the page were, Its clear that the author knows his literature very well and is a master wordsmith and storyteller, And hes oh so intelligent, It just happens that in this book his story is about fishing, Even if youve never picked up a rod before, read the book, Your life will be enriched, Great writing in the fly fishing genre, Boring. Rather than give you a "macro" review, I cover my favorite chapters of this book in sort of a microreview 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 offbeat, urban setting in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, He points out the art as well as the pointlessness of false casting to plasticringed 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 baddog, rubbing their nose in a big pile of silt they left in the river,

WorldRecord 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 vacantlooking head" earns more than respect "difficult

to deceive and very spooky" as an angler's quarry.


The SeaRun Fish is the most sharply pointed satire of the book, with a laserlike 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 offseason, 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 socalled 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 withwords of advice get his book, We like to think of the idea of selective trout it serves our anthropocentricity to believe that we are in a duel of wits with a fish, a sporting proposition.
We could do well to understand that trout and other game fish are entirely lacking in sporting instincts, They would prefer to dine unmolested and without being eaten themselves,

I was sorting out my books today and came across this little gem that I acquired when I came to France in.
I don't normally admit to the fact that I go fishing, well for trout anyway, I only began by chance shortly after our arrival as John didnt have a partner one day and he begrudgingly took me in his friend's place.
My instructions were that I was not to speak if I could help it and sit there quietly, appreciating the tranquility of nature while he showed me a few rudiments of fishing.
John makes his own flies but I dont have the patience for that unfortunately,

With fly fishing, it took me a while to spin the line correctly but I managed in the end, Jasper our Labrador sat there quietly too, which was a miracle, If he had been a nuisance, such as leaping into the river as hes a water dog, he would have been taken back to the car.
Whilst sitting there at the time waiting for the arrival of this elusive fish, I mused on the famous women who were also great fisherwomen, for example, the Queen Mother and Diana Rigg.


I personally prefer this form of fishing but it is not always feasible, depending on the banks of the river, the position of the trees, and where the pools are, etc.
It is a wonderful way to spend a day, I did not catch a trout on that first occasion but I did on latter occasions, As for the elusive salmon, well they are meant to be at Navarrenx close to us but Ive never seen one myself, I have, however, heard of others being lucky, It's still difficult for me to kill such a vibrant creature but we all eat meat and fish, unless we are vegetarians, of course, and I'm certainly not a hypocrite.
I feel guilty even now though at the idea of taking life away from a living creature,

I digress of course and return to Thomas McGuane, I loved this book for its honesty and the enthusiasm of the author, It was infectious and the descriptions and tales were a true delight, He travelled far and wide in his love of fishing, and even introduced his son Monte and they set off for New Zealand and other remote places.
From Montana, Ireland, Argentina, etc, in McGuanes adventures in pursuit of this love, we are shown how to truly appreciate this wonderful pastime, He also returned the fish alive to the water which was admirable,

After a long period of methodical fishing, I finally come up tight on a trout, He holds throbbing for a long moment, then without any run at all is suddenly aerial, Four crisp dashes later and the trout is vividly alive and cold in my hand, As I return him to the river, I bend over and watch him hold briefly in the graveled current between my feet, Then quick as a light hes gone,

In conclusion, they say that fishing and religion are closely related and Im inclined to believe that, Looking down the hill towards the roaring Saison River, yes that has to be the case,

A highly recommended book,

DNF

Imagine a less poetic Harrison with every likeable quality stripped away, All the hypocrisy with a sincere lack of self awareness,

ProsHis brother in law is Jimmy Buffet I did enjoy the various stories, however, I would of liked a little more philosophy than just a few sprinkles.
some beautiful writing here about fishing and some of the relevant natural history, i found it a bit dull at times but i don't really know anything about fishing so that's probably my fault rather than the The Longest Silence's.
Writing style is a little longwinded and antiquated, but for the target demographic it's not out of fashion, Not always PC either, but these stories were written from experiences long before the shift in cultural awareness,

There's a lot of great philosophizing and erudition about fly fishing, but beneath the cumbersome language Tom is just a fishing fanatic from a bygone era.
He's deeply connected to the fish he pursues, and his environment as he fishes,

This book won't teach you how to fish better, but it will teach you how to enjoy fishing more, The passion and the pursuit burst from every page, but it's the transcendent mindset that resonates most with me,

I think that's one of the great paradoxes about fly fishing: the challenge is mentally engaging, but the enjoyment one derives from fly fishing clears the mind of extraneous thought.


And that's how I feel about this book, I was both mentally stimulated and calmly soothed, DNF'd at. Not the The Longest Silence's fault, though, it's just not for me, Very jargony. The number of essays included made this really overwhelming, The descriptions are beautiful, but if you aren't into fishing that is all this ispages of description, If you ARE into fishing you will get far more out of this and will probably pick up on subtle stuff that went over my head as a nonangler.
A beautiful book about life, Top five all time. From the highly acclaimed author of Ninetytwo in the Shade and Cloudbursts comes a collection of alternately playful and exquisite essays borne of a lifetime spent fishing.
The forty pieces in The Longest Silenceincluding seven collected here for the first timetake the reader from the tarpon of Florida to the salmon of Iceland, from the bonefish of Mexico to the trout of Montana.
They introduce characters as varied as a highly literate Canadian frontiersman and a devoutly Mormon river guide and address issues ranging from the esoteric art of tying flies to the enduring philosophy of a seventeenthcentury angler to the trials of the aging fisherman.
Both reverent and hilarious by turns, and infused with a deep experience of wildlife and the outdoors, The Longest Silence sets the heart pounding for a glimpse of moving water and demonstrates what dedication to sport reveals about life.
What a great book by great writer! I'm not even a fisherman but thoroughly enjoyed the prose of this writer, If you enjoy fishing, this is a fantastic book of essays focused mostly on fly fishing trout rivers, bonefish, tarpon, and permit in the Florida Keys, and exotic locations abroad.
We don't fish in the same places, McGuane loves saltwater fly fishing and salmon fishing, I love fishing on mountain streams, Mixed feelings. Some consider McGuane a a genius I'll have to try his fiction, I enjoy his plain and straightforward prose style, though the occasional use of a pretentious word feels out of place, Some of the essays really are fantastic, I'm far more interested in the aesthetic of trout fishing than casting a fly for tarpon or bonefish, so a lot of the Florida essays left me feeling meh but that reflects as much on me as the author.
He's at his best when observing the people he fishes with, and so some of the destination stories and their attendant descriptions of guides and fellow sports are worth reading.
Especially "Fly Fishing the Evil Empire" and "Iceland, "

Also, and this is on the publisher, the book would have been much improved by dropping a quarter of the essays and bumping the font up to a readable size.
So good, many lol moments, Perfect balance of fishing with, well, not fishing, Makes me want to fish for tarpon! I will always have great memories of this book, Highly recommend it! dnf'd aboutpages in, underwhelmed and disappointed. Cerebral, well written and insightful, . . McGuane's essays describe the fly fisherman's experience and the fly fisherman's life, . . I'm a new fan! Thomas Francis McGuane III is an American writer, His work includes ten novels, short fiction and screenplays, as well as three collections of essays devoted to his life in the outdoors, He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Cutting Horse Association Members Hall of Fame and the Fly Fishing Hall of Fame.
McGuanes early novels were noted for a comic appreciation for the irrational core of many human endeavors, multiple takes on the counterculture of thes ands.
His later writing reflected an increasing devotion to family relationships and relationships with the natural world in the changing American West, primarily Montana, where he has made his home since, and where his last five novels and many Thomas Francis McGuane III is an American writer.
His work includes ten novels, short fiction and screenplays, as well as three collections of essays devoted to his life in the outdoors, He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Cutting Horse Association Members Hall of Fame and the Fly Fishing Hall of Fame.
McGuane's early novels were noted for a comic appreciation for the irrational core of many human endeavors, multiple takes on the counterculture of thes ands.
His later writing reflected an increasing devotion to family relationships and relationships with the natural world in the changing American West, primarily Montana, where he has made his home since, and where his last five novels and many of his essays are set.
He has three children, Annie, Maggie and Thomas, sitelink.