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All Fishermen Are Liars

All Fishermen Are Liars - John Gierach I received this from the First Reads program.

I guess I'm here to give a non-fisherman review. I don't fish, but I come from a family of fishermen and can understand the draw. This seems to be a series of collected essays (no connecting material or ideas, besides fish, of course) pulled together under a title that, besides referring to fishermen, has nothing to do with any of the essays.

It took me about 70 pages to get into the book. That's about how long it took me to forgive the author for the first chapter, a telling of his life story in 2nd person present tense. It's so bad it's almost as if the editor demanded it and the author, like a petulant child, delivered the worst possible version to punish the editor. By extension, we the readers get punished.

So SKIP the first chapter. Don't even try to read that thing. All you need to know is that he grew up in the 50s, wasn't born rich, and now he fishes a lot and writes about it. Done.

The 70 pages is also how long it took to get past the chapter on rods. He's an equipment freak. If you don't share that with him, that chapter should be skipped as well.

But then he settles into some good story telling. And I enjoyed it. But really, I recommend this book for serious fishermen only. While the quote on the back says that he writes about life, he really just writes about fishing. Every once in a while, the story strays just a little bit. But not in a meaningful way.

In the end, this is a good collection of good essays about fishing (the first chapter excepted). But don't go into it looking for anything other than fishing stories. He goes fishing with other people, but they don't say anything. If you know someone who want to read about currents and bait and tackle, this is where you should come.