Taut Lines

An anthology of great fishing stories, edited by Cameron Pierce written by some familiar names - Zane Gray, Rudyard Kipling, Izaak Walton, James Prosek - but most will be unfamiliar. And although the stories all contain fish and fishing, Pierce has tried to extend the field, to push the reader beyond the usual, and predictable, anthologies of man against fish (with man generally winning). These stories are broader in their reach and sweep; they present a wide emotional range. Many were written by women; the topography ranges from the Sierras to Afghanistan, and there is as much meditative quality and resonance in these tales as the requisite stories of landing (or losing) "the big one." To be sure, there are the great stories of big fish by angling legends, but there are also stories of human connections, of challenge and pathos, of the peace, even the spirituality, that comes with being a part of nature, and the companionship, or solitude, that comes with fishing. Cameron manages to include examples of every type of angling experience, each a classic in its own right, writing that is by turns strange, whimsical, instructional and sometimes heartbreaking.