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Backcast: Fatherhood, Fly-Fishing, and a River Journey Through the Heart of Alaska
While father and son fishing trips can be the stuff of American legend, they can also turn out to be the stuff of anger, love and self-discovery. In his memoir of a fishing trip through the Alaskan wilderness, Lou Ureneck brings to life the struggle to reclaim the trust of his teenage son, Adam, following his divorce. Told against the backdrop of the Alaskan wilds, Backcast is the remembrance of a fishing trip that carried a father and son from the mountains of Alaska to the Bering Sea. Along the way, nature transforms from friend into foe, and their struggles are played out against the poignant emotional battle raging between the two as they descend the river headed toward confrontation. On their journey, the two encounter nature's dangers -- bears, violent river currents and ruthless, punishing weather -- as well as the hurts that exist between them, the reasons for divorce, the absence of a father and the withheld love of a son. Dipping his hand into the river of his own life, Ureneck recounts his own fatherless childhood, the influence of his mother's boyfriend who helped him learn to fish, and the realization that he himself had done the one thing he always promised himself he would not He ended his marriage in divorce. Part adventure story, part reconciliation with life's unexpected turns, and part commentary on the healing power of nature, "Backcast" explores the world of a man confronted by the hard choices divorce can bring to create a moving meditation on fatherhood.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
7 people are currently reading
114 people want to read
About the author
Lou Ureneck
6 books29 followersLou Ureneck is a teacher and writer. He lives in Boston. His first book, "Backcast," won the National Outdoor Book Award for literary merit. He has worked as a reporter and editor at the Providence Journal, the Portland (Maine) Press Herald and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He also has been a merchant seaman and carpenter. Ureneck also was a Nieman fellow and editor-in-residence at Harvard University. He built a cabin in Maine with his brother, Paul, and wrote a book about it called "Cabin." In the book, he tells the story of Paul and him, of the cabin's construction and of his coming to consciousness about his love of nature. His most recent book, The Great Fire, is out in May 2015.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
July 26, 2009
What an odd book to read. It's especially odd because the author lived in my tiny home town as I grew up; I used to babysit his children. So it's particularly strange to read a painful personal account of his divorce and attempt to maintain a relationship with his son after it. The framework of the story is a fishing trip in Alaska with his son after the divorce became final, but the book ranges back across the author's life to explore his feelings about fatherhood and marriage, and how his parents' failed marriage affected thse views.
It's a deeply frustrating book. I don't think the author particularly wrote it with an eye to making himself likeable, which I do respect, but there's a vein of self-centeredness to it that makes for gruelling reading at times. He talks about how his father leaving when he was young gave him a deep drive to be a perfect father: he meets a nice enough girl, marries her, and builds by hand a Platonic image of a perfect home in the Maine woods. He describes how pleased he was at being able to buy his family nice things, how good it made him feel to know they depended on him, as if it's a nice dollhouse with pretty dolls. And then when the role of provider grows too tight for him, he decides that for him divorce isn't an ugly abandonment (like it was for his father), it's necessary for personal growth. There's a passage that about sums up my difficulty in which he complains that "Of course divorce is bad for children. So is a death in the family. Death occurs; divorce occurs. We do not impute motive to death. Why should we set this burden on divorce?" But we do impute motives to people who choose to kill themselves and thus abandon their friends and family--rightly or wrongly, not knowing the full story, it's still a choice and we judge such people. Divorce doesn't just "occur" like a bolt of lightning, it's something that's chosen. After he's spent so much time detailing the gaping holes in his life that his father's abandonment left him with, it's galling to see him spend so much time rationalizing his decision as a good thing.
So...it's really weird to write a review like this about someone I semi-know (not very well at all), but I do feel the book fails at its apparent goal of trying to be an honest, un-self-pitying account of a man's changing attitudes toward divorce and marriage. The author is an excellent writer--his descriptions of his relationship with his adored and flawed step-father were incredibly compelling, the best part of the book, and as a non-fisher I could still feel his love of the sport and what it meant to him personally--but many times the book came across as trying to lionize his decision to leave his family as a noble act of personal growth, which grated on me badly. I wish he had written a memoir of his childhood and not tried to explain to me quite so much how he really, really, really needed to leave his wife for another woman for his own personal development.
It's a deeply frustrating book. I don't think the author particularly wrote it with an eye to making himself likeable, which I do respect, but there's a vein of self-centeredness to it that makes for gruelling reading at times. He talks about how his father leaving when he was young gave him a deep drive to be a perfect father: he meets a nice enough girl, marries her, and builds by hand a Platonic image of a perfect home in the Maine woods. He describes how pleased he was at being able to buy his family nice things, how good it made him feel to know they depended on him, as if it's a nice dollhouse with pretty dolls. And then when the role of provider grows too tight for him, he decides that for him divorce isn't an ugly abandonment (like it was for his father), it's necessary for personal growth. There's a passage that about sums up my difficulty in which he complains that "Of course divorce is bad for children. So is a death in the family. Death occurs; divorce occurs. We do not impute motive to death. Why should we set this burden on divorce?" But we do impute motives to people who choose to kill themselves and thus abandon their friends and family--rightly or wrongly, not knowing the full story, it's still a choice and we judge such people. Divorce doesn't just "occur" like a bolt of lightning, it's something that's chosen. After he's spent so much time detailing the gaping holes in his life that his father's abandonment left him with, it's galling to see him spend so much time rationalizing his decision as a good thing.
So...it's really weird to write a review like this about someone I semi-know (not very well at all), but I do feel the book fails at its apparent goal of trying to be an honest, un-self-pitying account of a man's changing attitudes toward divorce and marriage. The author is an excellent writer--his descriptions of his relationship with his adored and flawed step-father were incredibly compelling, the best part of the book, and as a non-fisher I could still feel his love of the sport and what it meant to him personally--but many times the book came across as trying to lionize his decision to leave his family as a noble act of personal growth, which grated on me badly. I wish he had written a memoir of his childhood and not tried to explain to me quite so much how he really, really, really needed to leave his wife for another woman for his own personal development.
June 27, 2024
This wrapped up so nicely in the end and was a wonderful perspective of a man questioning fatherhood through difficulties in his middle age years.
April 18, 2023
RICK “SHAQ” GOLDSTEIN SAYS: “A FATHER & SON FISHING IN ALASKA; UNFORTUNATELY THEY WEREN’T ON THE “LOVE BOAT”!”
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I am a single Father whose son is now grown with a family of his own. As I look back on us growing up with each other the most special times were on an athletic field or on our Father and Son fishing trips. My business selling software takes me all over the United States and a new sale in Louisiana when my son was ten years old changed our lives forever. The owner of the business I sold in Bogalusa was named Charlie and when I was there to make the sale, his high school buddy “Tub” was in the office and they started good-naturedly arguing as to who was the better fisherman. This male ritual of “BUSTING EACH OTHER’S CHOPS” culminated with Tub telling everyone within shouting distance that whenever he found a “hot” fishing hole, Charlie would start casting into his “hole” because he wasn’t as good a fisherman as he was. After witnessing with joy and amazement this All-American fishing “shout-down” I said; “If you let me bring my son to Louisiana and take us fishing with you, I’ll give you free software training!” And so… the first of what would become eight yearly, Father-Son fishing trip memories of our life were born.
With those fishing adventures lovingly embossed in my heart I bought this book. The “tickler” review of this book centered on a Father and Son fishing trip to Alaska. Unfortunately for the author, (Lou Ureneck) his experience with his son Adam was not so lovingly remembered. Lou had divorced his wife of over twenty years and his son had always seemed to blame him. Things never seemed to be the same between Father and Son since the divorce. Lou saw this trip as a last gasp in rebuilding a loving bond before Adam went to college. At the time of this summer trip to Alaska Lou was 49 and Adam was 18. From the time they arrived in Alaska Adam acted like Lou was either non-existent, dumb, a nuisance or all three. When they finally made it into the raft, and on to the river that would occupy most of the story, Lou felt like he was being treated with the same level of importance by his son as a “bologna sandwich”. The manner of which the author turns phrases is at times intelligently short and powerful: “It was easy to turn him into a fisherman. I just put him near water.” And at other times elegantly beautiful and poetic, as when he was describing the constantly changing Alaskan landscape as their unrelenting trip progresses down the river: “The entire landscape seemed to be breaking into shards of light and color like a crystal held up to the sun and turned first this way and then that.”
What starts off as a story of an Alaskan fishing trip begins to become long flash backs to the Author’s life story. Lou starts sharing with the reader his childhood that included his Father leaving his family when he was young, leaving him and his brother to lead an almost nomadic life with his mother living in over seventeen different homes. As Lou retells his childhood years, he seems to be psychoanalyzing himself at the same time. When he writes that his mother’s boyfriend Johnny, an unreliable alcoholic who becomes her second husband, and becomes more of a Father figure than his natural Father, with almost all the fond memories tied to fishing, his despair due to the chasm between him and Adam becomes even more daunting, when he digs up the memory of Johnny simply getting up and walking out of the house without ever coming back.
When the story focuses on the river, we’re involved with protective, potentially murderous, giant bears, bad weather, raging rapids, large assortments and sizes of fish to catch, dwindling food supplies, and the constantly growing abyss between Father and Son. Lou felt his son emanated nothing but “sarcasm, annoyance, and distance.” A large portion of the book is dedicated to the author’s life story rather than the fishing trip. The trip is more an analogy of the Father-Son relationship Lou never had as a child, and he is giving one last soulful, final, gasp of parental effort, to transform his relationship with Adam into what he always dreamed of and never got as a son with a Father.
At the end of this book I found myself feeling very said for Lou because I know what treasure Lou was searching for at the end of his personal rainbow. On February 12th 2003, the night before I was to have brain surgery for a tumor that could very well (and almost did) end my life, I went for a walk with my son and told him what I wanted done with the material things I would leave behind if I didn’t make it, and then we reminisced about something we both agreed 100% on: WE BOTH SAID THE GREATEST FATHER & SON TIMES WE EVER HAD IN OUR LIFE WERE OUR FISHING TRIPS IN LOUISIANA! I know that a shared feeling like that with his son Adam, was the treasure Lou was looking for in Alaska.
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I am a single Father whose son is now grown with a family of his own. As I look back on us growing up with each other the most special times were on an athletic field or on our Father and Son fishing trips. My business selling software takes me all over the United States and a new sale in Louisiana when my son was ten years old changed our lives forever. The owner of the business I sold in Bogalusa was named Charlie and when I was there to make the sale, his high school buddy “Tub” was in the office and they started good-naturedly arguing as to who was the better fisherman. This male ritual of “BUSTING EACH OTHER’S CHOPS” culminated with Tub telling everyone within shouting distance that whenever he found a “hot” fishing hole, Charlie would start casting into his “hole” because he wasn’t as good a fisherman as he was. After witnessing with joy and amazement this All-American fishing “shout-down” I said; “If you let me bring my son to Louisiana and take us fishing with you, I’ll give you free software training!” And so… the first of what would become eight yearly, Father-Son fishing trip memories of our life were born.
With those fishing adventures lovingly embossed in my heart I bought this book. The “tickler” review of this book centered on a Father and Son fishing trip to Alaska. Unfortunately for the author, (Lou Ureneck) his experience with his son Adam was not so lovingly remembered. Lou had divorced his wife of over twenty years and his son had always seemed to blame him. Things never seemed to be the same between Father and Son since the divorce. Lou saw this trip as a last gasp in rebuilding a loving bond before Adam went to college. At the time of this summer trip to Alaska Lou was 49 and Adam was 18. From the time they arrived in Alaska Adam acted like Lou was either non-existent, dumb, a nuisance or all three. When they finally made it into the raft, and on to the river that would occupy most of the story, Lou felt like he was being treated with the same level of importance by his son as a “bologna sandwich”. The manner of which the author turns phrases is at times intelligently short and powerful: “It was easy to turn him into a fisherman. I just put him near water.” And at other times elegantly beautiful and poetic, as when he was describing the constantly changing Alaskan landscape as their unrelenting trip progresses down the river: “The entire landscape seemed to be breaking into shards of light and color like a crystal held up to the sun and turned first this way and then that.”
What starts off as a story of an Alaskan fishing trip begins to become long flash backs to the Author’s life story. Lou starts sharing with the reader his childhood that included his Father leaving his family when he was young, leaving him and his brother to lead an almost nomadic life with his mother living in over seventeen different homes. As Lou retells his childhood years, he seems to be psychoanalyzing himself at the same time. When he writes that his mother’s boyfriend Johnny, an unreliable alcoholic who becomes her second husband, and becomes more of a Father figure than his natural Father, with almost all the fond memories tied to fishing, his despair due to the chasm between him and Adam becomes even more daunting, when he digs up the memory of Johnny simply getting up and walking out of the house without ever coming back.
When the story focuses on the river, we’re involved with protective, potentially murderous, giant bears, bad weather, raging rapids, large assortments and sizes of fish to catch, dwindling food supplies, and the constantly growing abyss between Father and Son. Lou felt his son emanated nothing but “sarcasm, annoyance, and distance.” A large portion of the book is dedicated to the author’s life story rather than the fishing trip. The trip is more an analogy of the Father-Son relationship Lou never had as a child, and he is giving one last soulful, final, gasp of parental effort, to transform his relationship with Adam into what he always dreamed of and never got as a son with a Father.
At the end of this book I found myself feeling very said for Lou because I know what treasure Lou was searching for at the end of his personal rainbow. On February 12th 2003, the night before I was to have brain surgery for a tumor that could very well (and almost did) end my life, I went for a walk with my son and told him what I wanted done with the material things I would leave behind if I didn’t make it, and then we reminisced about something we both agreed 100% on: WE BOTH SAID THE GREATEST FATHER & SON TIMES WE EVER HAD IN OUR LIFE WERE OUR FISHING TRIPS IN LOUISIANA! I know that a shared feeling like that with his son Adam, was the treasure Lou was looking for in Alaska.
May 10, 2022
I originally purchased this book for my husband because I thought he would enjoy the story of a fishing trip through Alaska, when he started reading it, he decided he wasn’t interested in all the back story about this man’s life, so the book was shoved in a closet.
Fast forward quite a few years, I was cleaning out the closet and found the book and decided I would read it. I really enjoyed the story about their actual time in Alaska, the back story was ok, but seemed to overshadow the Alaskan story. I would have preferred there was less of the “past” and more of the “present.” I also wish the ending had been more defined. The Epilogue did sort of wrap things up, but I was left wanting more.
The ebbs and flows in everyday life certainly mirror the ebbs and flow of an Alaskan river, so I certainly understand the reason for the past, present style of writing. I just would have liked to hear more about the present day story, instead of soooooo much history!
It is a very quick read, and I don’t regret the time I spent reading it!
Fast forward quite a few years, I was cleaning out the closet and found the book and decided I would read it. I really enjoyed the story about their actual time in Alaska, the back story was ok, but seemed to overshadow the Alaskan story. I would have preferred there was less of the “past” and more of the “present.” I also wish the ending had been more defined. The Epilogue did sort of wrap things up, but I was left wanting more.
The ebbs and flows in everyday life certainly mirror the ebbs and flow of an Alaskan river, so I certainly understand the reason for the past, present style of writing. I just would have liked to hear more about the present day story, instead of soooooo much history!
It is a very quick read, and I don’t regret the time I spent reading it!
April 29, 2023
I wish the book was more about Alaska and less of a story of abandonment. I did learn a few things about fishing and salmon. The book felt sad though as our author is constantly Abandoned and uprooted. He drags on about his dealing with his “unique” divorce which is the most Comman divorce that I know of. He married then abandons his wife on all his days off to build a house from scratch, then to hike around the woods. He leaves her home on the weekends to raise the kids. He has become the one who causes the abandonment. I am not sure if he ever made this connection. He talks a about all the money he spent on therapy but only the creepy results of it and few Epiphanies.
I did like his writing style and was drawn into the book.
I did like his writing style and was drawn into the book.
April 4, 2018
An excellent book which I enjoyed on many levels. The author's stories of his life as a child growing up recalled many of my own childhood memories for me.
Of course, the fact that it involved - or revolved around - a raft trip down a river in Alaska pretty much had me hooked.
But his observations about nature and life and the way he shared his own struggles with an alcoholic father and later his tempestuous relationship with his son following his divorce were topics I could really relate to personally.
This was all set against a backdrop of a wilderness journey, both physical and metaphysical, and I was never bored for even one second.
Of course, the fact that it involved - or revolved around - a raft trip down a river in Alaska pretty much had me hooked.
But his observations about nature and life and the way he shared his own struggles with an alcoholic father and later his tempestuous relationship with his son following his divorce were topics I could really relate to personally.
This was all set against a backdrop of a wilderness journey, both physical and metaphysical, and I was never bored for even one second.
Read
April 5, 2021This book was mostly about his tumultuous childhood and how it molded him as a husband and father. Yes, fishing is a life long theme as would riding a bike for someone who is a cyclist as a hobby when they are an adult. The Alaskan adventure part of the book takes a backseat to Lou trying to make sense of his childhood, father situation and subsequent marital issues. I wouldn't pick this up if you are looking for a fishing book
July 28, 2022
This is a beautiful, heartbreaking book. I won't forget the journey of father and son through Alaska--or the journey of the father as a boy casting in the grass.
July 11, 2023
Not what I expected, but enjoyed the well written story
May 21, 2009
Drawn initially to this book's story of a father and son fly fishing trip in the Alaskan wilderness, I was hopeful that the book would take me down the path of insight into one of the most important relationships on earth. And though the author describes in great detail the beautiful Alaskan scenery, and the adventurous trials that he and his son both faced on that journey through the wilderness, I was yet dissappointed by the direction that the book eventually headed in.
The title "Backcast" is a play on words - referring to both the art of the fly fisherman's backcast, and the art of looking back on one's life introspectively in hopes of gaining insight into the direction you are currently headed. The author's own personal story, as he looks back on his life, is a well detailed narative. I must say that I truly enjoyed both this personal narative, and his perspective on those days spent in the wilderness with his son. However, I struggled to "love" this book in the end, as the author seems to give himself an 'out' in one of the most important aspects of being a father - dedication to his family. The author talks about his desire to never repeat the mistakes of his family's past - namely divorce - but instead makes many of those same decisions that deeply hurt him as a child. As a result, his children and wife suffer, while he continually puts his own needs first. Time and time again, he "excuses" his behavior and decisions by stating that he should not be required to stay in a relationship that does not benefit him (in so many words). He even places his children in the position of having to choose one parent over another, in effect. As a father, I struggled with this section of the book - there are far too many stories of father's upsetting the dreams of their little ones.
Overall, the book is an easy read, and the narative keeps the reader engaged. The author shared his story, I'm assuming, in hopes to reconnect with his children as they come to understand his heart, and the reasons behind his decisions. His story is worth reading, though not always easy to stomach.
The title "Backcast" is a play on words - referring to both the art of the fly fisherman's backcast, and the art of looking back on one's life introspectively in hopes of gaining insight into the direction you are currently headed. The author's own personal story, as he looks back on his life, is a well detailed narative. I must say that I truly enjoyed both this personal narative, and his perspective on those days spent in the wilderness with his son. However, I struggled to "love" this book in the end, as the author seems to give himself an 'out' in one of the most important aspects of being a father - dedication to his family. The author talks about his desire to never repeat the mistakes of his family's past - namely divorce - but instead makes many of those same decisions that deeply hurt him as a child. As a result, his children and wife suffer, while he continually puts his own needs first. Time and time again, he "excuses" his behavior and decisions by stating that he should not be required to stay in a relationship that does not benefit him (in so many words). He even places his children in the position of having to choose one parent over another, in effect. As a father, I struggled with this section of the book - there are far too many stories of father's upsetting the dreams of their little ones.
Overall, the book is an easy read, and the narative keeps the reader engaged. The author shared his story, I'm assuming, in hopes to reconnect with his children as they come to understand his heart, and the reasons behind his decisions. His story is worth reading, though not always easy to stomach.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 22, 2014
The author invites you to come along on a rafting / fly fishing trip down Alaska's Kanektok River. There's excitement in the air in the opening chapter as the author and his teenage son hop planes from Philly to Anchorage then to Dillingham and finally dropped by bush-plane into the Alaskan wilderness - ON THEIR OWN. To dial up the adventure meter here, the East coast duo decides to cover the 100 plus mile float by themselves. Add to that a shoe-string budget for equipment and a first time ever trip to the wilds of Alaska, and well, I sensed it would be interesting.
And yes, these guys experience the thrills and dangers of the untamed Alaskan wilderness first-hand. But the greater adventure Lou Ureneck has in mind for us in Backcast isn't catching wild silver salmon on a fly-rod, but the adventure of growing up, becoming a man, and the demands of being a good father.
Backcast alternates settings between Alaskan wilderness and Ureneck's various homes which range from South Jersey up north to Maine. At least a third to a half of the book tells Ureneck's life story. How he grew up. The importance he places on fishing as an escape from an unstable family life and as a common bond with his step-father. And lastly, living through the stress and anguish of a crumbling marriage.
Ureneck vows to not repeat the mistakes of his natural father and his step-father. As the story closes, we are presented with a father who has made tough choices but refuses to throw in the towel on his son. The struggle here to maintain the love and respect of his college-bound son, is no less in scope to what it takes to survive the raw, Alaskan wilderness. At the end of Backcast, I'm left feeling that his father is certainly up to the task.
Ureneck delivers a well-told, and extremely personal story of a man's journey to confront a childhood filled with temporary homes and temporary father figures. The struggle against the Alaskan elements sometimes pale in comparison.
And yes, these guys experience the thrills and dangers of the untamed Alaskan wilderness first-hand. But the greater adventure Lou Ureneck has in mind for us in Backcast isn't catching wild silver salmon on a fly-rod, but the adventure of growing up, becoming a man, and the demands of being a good father.
Backcast alternates settings between Alaskan wilderness and Ureneck's various homes which range from South Jersey up north to Maine. At least a third to a half of the book tells Ureneck's life story. How he grew up. The importance he places on fishing as an escape from an unstable family life and as a common bond with his step-father. And lastly, living through the stress and anguish of a crumbling marriage.
Ureneck vows to not repeat the mistakes of his natural father and his step-father. As the story closes, we are presented with a father who has made tough choices but refuses to throw in the towel on his son. The struggle here to maintain the love and respect of his college-bound son, is no less in scope to what it takes to survive the raw, Alaskan wilderness. At the end of Backcast, I'm left feeling that his father is certainly up to the task.
Ureneck delivers a well-told, and extremely personal story of a man's journey to confront a childhood filled with temporary homes and temporary father figures. The struggle against the Alaskan elements sometimes pale in comparison.
December 31, 2010
I half enjoyed and was half irritated with this book. I found myself very engaged when Lou was writing about the trip he was taking with his son; ten days of fishing without a guide down 50 miles of a wild Alaskan river. When he would speak in the moment about their trip, their struggles to reconnect, danger they encountered, even the beauty of fishing in Alaska I found myself very interested. I understood the need to incorporate flashbacks into the storyline as a way to better understand why Lou struggled with his reasons for getting a divorce, and how flashbacks demonstrated his issues with coping with what the divorce has done to his family, but I felt his flashbacks were at times disjointing and seemed usually to run on far too long.
Mixed feeling about the book as a whole, but I will say that it made me dream of an Alaskan vacation of my own. Just with less rain, and bear encounters that is.
Mixed feeling about the book as a whole, but I will say that it made me dream of an Alaskan vacation of my own. Just with less rain, and bear encounters that is.
April 15, 2010
Other's have already said it better....this book should have had more of their trip in Alaska and less of the author's personal divorce and growing up baggage. I really did enjoy all parts relating to his travel with his son. I would even stop and read parts out loud to my family they were so good.
The joke about the bears....I will tell over and over, and I loved the quoted poem from Robert Frost.
The author is an excellent writer and knows how to tell a story. I just wished he had concentrated more on the story I was interested in.
The joke about the bears....I will tell over and over, and I loved the quoted poem from Robert Frost.
The author is an excellent writer and knows how to tell a story. I just wished he had concentrated more on the story I was interested in.
January 1, 2013
I like Lou Ureneck's writing. He's an honest and earnest teller of his own history, and he doesn't waste time embellishing what doesn't need to be embellished. He's realistic with himself about his own fatherhood and marriage--what worked and what didn't--and he does an excellent job weaving his river experience with his son into what sometimes is a larger narrative. I recommend it highly, to anyone who enjoys outdoor writing, memoir, or both. I also recommend Ureneck's Cabin, though he covers much of the same autobiographical territory.
August 3, 2011
This book is more about fathers and sons than about an Alaskan fishing adventure. The breadth of the narrative is interesting, going back to the author's own childhood adventures. I would have liked more depth though, especially in the main storyline between the father and son on the fishing trip. But also it felt like there were more ties to be made between the author's past and present. He is a very good writer -- but there's more story to be explored.
January 4, 2009
A meandering story about the author's life as he takes his son on a fishing trip. Maybe the story was a way of justifying his life's choices, his divorce and his struggling up bringing. He was telling his side of the story. Sometimes I would also like to hear the other side of the story. Maybe our justification wouldn't have much to stand on.
September 23, 2009
This book does not deliver what it promises. Too much about Ureneck, not enough about his boy and the rafting trip they take. There is some outstanding description, but this books seems less "graceful disclosure" and more self indulgent rambling. You had a shitty childhood. You loved your mom and she did the best she could. Your birth father was an ass. I get it.
April 14, 2008
Interesting description of father and son's fly fishing/rafting trip in Alaska (with no guides or other people). Also enjoyed some of father's background story on growing up in dysfunctional family, doing newspaper work, building own house in Maine, and going through divorce
February 6, 2008
A great book that reminded me of my own father's hopes and dreams -- and the challenges he experienced in trying to express them.
February 9, 2008
I want to go to Alaska and rafting - but not without a guide or with a teenage son.
July 16, 2015
sounds interesting. Waiting for the paperback version because I'm cheap.
November 4, 2008
This author is so massively self obsessed it was laughable. He aptly confirms the male mid life crisis stereotype.
A whiny jerk.
A whiny jerk.
September 8, 2009
Anyone who's experienced divorce in their family will find plenty to identify with in these pages.
February 23, 2010
Just finishing it. Parts are pretty sad but the writing is so honest and thoughtful that I got really into it.
February 23, 2011
marvelous work on many levels, Mr Urenick is an exceptional wordsmith
November 6, 2011
Ureneck has a nack for writing. I enjoyed his style. I flowed so nicely. This is a great book about relationships! Thank you First reads!
August 13, 2016
September 2008 book group
October 6, 2013
a little slow but definitely worth the read - especially being a fisher myself
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January 9, 2017Reads like the story of my life of for that matter the life of many American men who are outdoorsmen, fathers and divorce' Wish I would have followed his lead.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews