I got into trouble at book club last month by persuaded the girls to read one of my favorite books, A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean. They hated it. Too much fly-fishing. Couldn’t get into it. Thank goodness it’s short, so they didn’t suffer long.
But I’m unwilling to give up touting this classic. You’ve no doubt seen the movie, with Brad Pitt as Paul, and Robert Redford as narrator. But the book is so much more.
Granted, I am fascinated with fly-fishing. I don’t do it myself, but I want to know what it is about it that my grandfather so thoroughly loved .
The book is the author’s own family story, that he didn’t write until he was 70 years old and retired from teaching English at the University of Chicago.
The books first sentences read “In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others.”
So we read beautiful passages about the brothers fly fishing on the Blackfoot River. But we also explore whether we really are our brother’s keeper. How can we help someone? Can we help someone? What if we can’t?
I’m trying again, pleading with you. Read A River Runs Through It. It’s only 104 pages, and a great summer read. Let me know what you think.
Son Tim's first experience fly fishing -- and with catch and release
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