Witty, shrewd, and always a joy to read, John Gierach, "America's best
fishing writer" (Houston Chronicle) and favorite streamside
philosopher, has earned the following of "legions of readers who may not
even fish but are drawn to his musings on community, culture, the
natural world, and the seasons of life" (Kirkus Reviews).
"After five decades, twenty books, and countless columns, [John
Gierach] is still a master" (Forbes). Now, in his latest original
collection, Gierach shows us why fly-fishing is the perfect antidote to
everything that is wrong with the world.
"Gierach's deceptively laconic prose masks an accomplished
storyteller...His alert and slightly off-kilter observations place him
in the general neighborhood of Mark Twain and James Thurber"
(Publishers Weekly). In Dumb Luck and the Kindness of Strangers,
Gierach looks back to the long-ago day when he bought his first resident
fishing license in Colorado, where the fishing season never ends, and
just knew he was in the right place. And he succinctly sums up part of
the appeal of his sport when he writes that it is "an acquired taste
that reintroduces the chaos of uncertainty back into our well-regulated
lives."
Lifelong fisherman though he is, Gierach can write with self-deprecating
humor about his own fishing misadventures, confessing that despite all
his experience, he is still capable of blowing a strike by a fish "in
the usual amateur way." "Arguably the best fishing writer working" (The
Wall Street Journal), Gierach offers witty, trenchant observations not
just about fly-fishing itself but also about how one's love of
fly-fishing shapes the world that we choose to make for ourselves.
