Synopses & Reviews
Every summer for two decades, Ted Leeson and a maverick group of close companions have returned to an old ranch house on the benchland overlooking the Madison River. Trout and fly fishing may be at the heart of their ritual return, but their experience goes far beyond the fishing. Leeson contemplates both the human and natural landscape brilliantly: the fly-anglers passionate, ironic, and sometimes hilarious allegiances to what they do; the intriguing Madison Valley and its creatures and flowers; the trout town of Ennis; maps and their revelations; the green-card” experience of living in a place in which you are not native; the nature of leisure.
Full of wit, surprise, shrewd observation, and wisdom, this book tells a story about creating a place of temporary liberty, and inhabiting a world fashioned of your best imaginings, where you might, for a time, live the potencies of a place that you have shaped and has shaped you. No lover of the very best writing about fly fishing and the natural world can afford to miss this stunning book.
Review
"Leeson's work belongs on a shelf next to that of Annie Dillard, Barry Lopez, and others of their stripe." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Ted Leeson is wry, deft, modest, and engaging. Without compromising those qualities, he is also a writer who illuminates human life." Franklin Burroughs, author of < em=""> The River Home: A Return to the Carolina Low Country < m="">
Review
"Fans of fishing and travel memoirs by Bill Tapply, Thomas McGuane, and Jim Harrison will find much to appreciate here." John Rowen
Review
"A good book to have in the tackle box for quiet moments and a welcome addition to the literature of fishing and Montana alike." Booklist
Synopsis
"Ted Leeson is taking us in the only direction the literature of angling should go: toward finding our place in the natural world. His voice is indispensable."--Thomas McGuane
About the Author
Ted Leeson is the author or editor of nearly a dozen books, including the highly praised The Habit of Rivers and Jerusalem Creek. His articles and essays, both practical and literary, have appeared in such magazines as Fly Rod & Reel, Fly Fisherman, Men's Journal, Big Sky Journal, Trout, Audubon, Field & Stream, Gray's Sporting Journal, and widely elsewhere. He has taught at Oregon State University for twenty-five years and lives in Corvallis, Oregon.