FISHING WITH JOHN

by Edith Iglauer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1988

The author of Denison's Ice Road (1975) and Inuit Journey (1979) describes her four years living on a fishing boat with the British Columbian salmon fisherman who was her husband until he died in 1978. Iglauer seems to enjoy the technical side of the outdoor experience--the names of different kinds of salmon, different kinds of engines on fishing boats, different brands of long winter underwear worn by salmon fishermen. Even more than telling the names of things, though, Iglauer likes to describe how they work: how salmon fishermen wash their clothes on board their boats (with a pail and clothesline); how they steer their boats without any hands (with a self-steering device); what kind of wood is best to burn if you are planning to smoke salmon; what kind of metal is best for your hooks. All of this detail would be very useful if you were planning to become a salmon fisherman; but why the decision, in a book obviously intended for general interest, to devote quite so many pages to the technical mysteries of fishing, and so few to the characters and personalities of the fishermen themselves--the raw, wild potential of their thought and talk--is a question. The thought and talk of the fishermen, when Iglauer does render them, remain plain and rather dull; Iglauer's technical exactitude creates a tone of respect for a vanishing way of life, but the lack of verbal excitement or humor in her prose makes it all rather flat and predictable, like a continuous gray fog on the horizon.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1988

ISBN: 0920080936

Page Count: -

Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1988

Categories: NONFICTION