Rob Baker’s Reviews > A River Runs Through It and Other Stories > Status Update

"....the last three were the finest fish I ever caught. They weren't the biggest or most spectacular fish I ever caught, but they were the three fish I caught because my brother waded across the river to give me the fly that would catch them and because they were the last fish I ever caught fishing with him" (94).

"That's one trouble with hanging around a master --- you pick up some of his stuff, like how to cast into a bush, but you use it just when the master is doing the opposite" (45).

"Sunrise is the time to feel that you will be able to find out how to heop somebody close to you who you think needs help even if hed doesn't think so. At sunrise everything is luminous but not clear" (28).

"She was one of America's mothers who never dream of using profanity themselves but enjoy their husbands', and later come to need it, like cigar smoke" (22).

"More than most mothers, Scottish mothers have had to accustom themselves to migration and sin, and to them all sons are prodigal and welcome home. Scotsmen, however, are much more reserved about welcoming returning male relatives, and do so largely under the powerful influence of their women" (11).

"Power comes not from power everywhere, but from knowing where to put it on.

...My father ws very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him, all good things--trout as well as eternal salvation--come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy" (4).

I first read this book back in the 90s when it had a surge in popularity because the movie came out.

It caused a wave of popularity in fly fishing and of people looking for the book "The Compleat Angler", by Izaak Walton (I owned a used bookstore at the time).

I don't recall being super into it, but now I'm 30 years older -closer to Maclean's age was when he wrote it (73) --so maybe I'll feel differently.