Synopses & Reviews
Patrick F. McManus's gently comic stories about outdoor life have earned him millions of fans worldwide. With
Kerplunk!, McManus delivers a collection of folksy, wonderfully wise depictions of country life worthy of Mark Twain.
In these tall tales, McManus and his buddies learn how not to net a fish, why you should never get your hair cut by someone who's mad at you, what to do when a deer wanders into camp but your sleeping bag has frozen shut, and how to avoid bird-dog flatulence.
Traveling the highways and byways of the Pacific Northwest, the delightful backcountry characters of Kerplunk! understand how a life of hunting and fishing -- and its inherent potential for misadventure -- can resonate with larger meaning. McManus's characters know exactly why it costs $500 to make a fly lure that retails for $2; why installing a boat trailer hookup can lead to divorce; and, most important, why you should always listen for the sound of your fishing line hitting the water -- because in life as it is in fishing, you don't know you're in the water until you hear the kerplunk!
These wry, curmudgeonly tales appeal to real outdoorsmen and the armchair variety alike. Often nostalgic, occasionally philosophical, and always funny, the stories in Kerplunk! reaffirm Patrick F. McManus's reputation as an American classic.
Synopsis
McManus delivers a collection of folksy, wonderfully wise depictions of country life worthy of Mark Twain. The delightful backcountry characters of "Kerplunk!" understand how a life of hunting and fishing--and its inherent potential for misadventure--can resonate with larger meaning.
About the Author
Patrick F. McManus is a renowned outdoor writer, humorist, and longtime columnist for Outdoor Life and Field & Stream. His most recent Sheriff Bo Tully mysteries are The Double-Jack Murders and Avalanche. He is the author of many other books, including such runaway New York Times bestsellers as The Grasshopper Trap, The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw, and Real Ponies Don't Go Oink! He lives in Spokane, Washington.
Table of Contents
Contents
Kerplunk! 1
The Art of Trailering 7
Silent but Deadly 13
Excuses Excuses 19
Splitting Infinitives 27
Don't Annoy My Inner Frontiersman 33
Camping Out with Lewis and Clark 39
Strange Meets His Match 45
"Uh-oh!" (And Other Things Guides Shouldn't Say) 51
The Ideal Life 57
A Creek Too Far 63
The Perfect Hunt 69
Thirty Days 77
Where's Mr. Sun? 83
The Lucky Guy 89
Many Are Called 95
A Dimple in Time 101
Spare Me the Details (What Are the Odds of a Double Flat?) 105
The Haircut 113
Bed-and-Breakfast 119
Lenny 125
The Winter of Eighteen Months 133
Christmas Goose 139
Peak Experience 147
Back to Basics 155
People Who Hunt 161
For Every Smell, a Nose 167
The Ordinary 173
The Kind of Guy I Am 179
High-Centered (And Other Life Lessons) 185
A Look Too Many 191
The Eighty 195
Performance Netting 201
The Pasture 207
Predicament 213
Dalliance 219