John Gierach (Simon & Schuster)
USD 24.00

Reading Trout Bum by John Gierach almost 20 years ago was, to me, like tasting my first maple syrup and bacon pancake: A fantastic and surprising new experience that perfectly hit the spot and had you just coming back for more!

Here was a world where people built their lives around fly-fishing, and had a ball doing it. Gierach made his life sound at once casual and natural, but managed to sprinkle in a bit of man-stuff to make the point that in comparison to us mere mortals he is living life out on the edge: on the edge of physical safety, of financial security, of breaking relationships, of society; on the edge of sanity?

And so, I've since made a point of buying everything Gierach has written before and since. His latest, and 15th (not counting an anthology), book is called Fool's Paradise.

Now when I buy a Gierach book, I pretty much know what I'm in for: a chapter on the Fryingpan River at Roy Palm's place, a chapter on a fly-in trip to Canada, a story about fishing in the snow on a tailwater fishery, a story about a trip with his best friend AK Best; and I'm expecting a chapter on bass and pike fishing with Ed Engle in Nebraska. And that, plus some other familiar stuff, is what you get in Fool's Paradise.

To that extent, picking up Fool's Paradise is like pulling on an old pair of waders. They fit perfectly comfortably thank you, they take you to where you want to be, you know where the leaks are, and they remind you of all the fun you've had with them in the past. Fool's paradise is classic Gierach, definitely. It's just not his best.

Don't misunderstand me, everything is relative. This is still a great book, and there is some new ground covered with chapters on fly-fishing for bull trout and muskies.
His prose is still deceptively easy, and he still has a fantastic turn of phrase that just grabs you and makes you say out loud “Hey! Me too!” I particularly liked this when talking about conserving Bull Trout:

Some of us eventually arrive at a concept of restraint through reason, others are shamed into it by information that's impossible to ignore, and still others just begin to notice that at the end of certain bang-up days we're not as proud of ourselves as we expected to be.

And this talking about the march of progress in fly-fishing:

At the time it was happening, it seemed like the end of something, but then I felt slightly less desolate when I began to think of it as simply the beginning of something else. It's just that we all think our own golden age was better than anything that came later and of course time goes in only one direction, so you never get to point at a meadow full of browsing mule deer and say, “You know, all this was once condos.”

It's brilliant stuff like this that makes Gierach special, and is the reason you are probably going to buy this book. And yet…

I didn't feel the book held together as well as some of his other titles. There doesn't seem to be any connecting theme running through Fool's Paradise, and it comes across a bit like a hurried collection of articles, (I recognised at least a couple of chapters from his back page articles in FR&R). There is no foreword or introduction, and the individual chapters give no clue as to the reason for the book or it's place in his life.

Contrast this with other recent Gierach books: In Still Life with Brook Trout, and At the Grave of the Unknown Fisherman Gierach addresses his changing perspectives as he gets older, how his relationships and living circumstances have changed, and how his fishing has changed (or not!) to encompass this. These books give a real sense of progression in comparison to his full on, fish-'til-you-drop, exploits in Trout Bum or Sex Death and Fly-fishing.

Fool's Paradise is a good entertaining read, honestly. Gierach fans will need no encouragement - you'll buy it anyway. If you've never read any Gierach, Fool's Paradise is a nice introduction to him, go out and buy it (preferably in The States, £24 in the UK - Ouch!). You'll enjoy it - just make sure you also buy some of his other titles to see him at his very best.

Will Shaw
April '09