Synopses & Reviews
James R. Babb imbues his devastating wit, ornery perspective, and musical language within each of the ribald tales in River Music. This is exemplified in the “Prelude,” his opus about “the occasional laugh, the occasional thought, a bit about fly fishing and a bit about Life, and all of it underpinned by the music of rivers.” The pieces are arranged in a harmonious current that carries us through the seasons, and life itself.
He recounts a disastrous—and hilarious—spring canoeing trip with a friend in “The Darling Buds of May,” where the snow accumulated so quickly on their hats that they “looked like Conehead voyagers from Remulak.” In “The Coriolis Effect,” Babb rhapsodizes about the sights, smells, and culture of what he considers to be the last great place on Earth, where pristine Chilean waters and a native way of life relieve him of an obsession about which direction the water flushes. And in “Little Jewels,” he weaves an exquisite, deeply humorous, and haunting nocturne with peccadillo accompaniment that considers the mating habits of trout and men, mortality, and a thirty-nine-year-long unrequited love. Babb is a maverick whose latest offering is a true departure from conventional essays on fly fishing, or on any subject, and will be relished by the growing circle of Babb fanatics everywhere.
Review
“Ranks with some of the best nature writers in print.”--
Kirkus Reviews“So fluid and configured is Babbs writing that to read him is as delicious to the senses as to the mind.”--Janisse Ray, author of Ecology of the Cracker Childhood, Winner of the American Book Award
Review
"He has a fine eye for fine words. . . It's good. His confessions are insightful, and a bit surprising, his metaphors nail their targets and his words flow . . . like river music. Sometimes smooth, sometimes a bit rushed, sometimes in a tumble, but when they sift into the pool there's a clarity and insightful depth. . . . If you haven't sat down with a good story book, just to read good stories for the enjoys--this may be a good place to start."--
The Reel News"Babb's background--his assorted careers and range of interests and obsessions--creates a large and curious cache of knowledge, a personal encyclopedia of information and set of skills on which to draw, write, cook, build houses, or grind tappets. Such people--polymaths, you know--may end up commanding armies of vivid verbs, owning collections of perspectives that allow them to smelt the most surprising amalgams. But that's only part of the story. Add to that a memory that traps images, music, and language, and the wit to dissect streams, cultures and edible animals, then blend in a fondness for people, however mercilessly perceived. Combine these with withering honesty, then a kind of irreverence. . . How does that all work in River Music? Beautifully. Hysterically, at times." --Fly Rod & Reel
"Babb takes his readers on a roller-coaster ride through farce and satire to elegy and folk-tale. He's a flyfishing Mark Twain who knows a little bit too much about Beavis and Butthead. The stories meander and turn like the streams on which they are set, leaving the reader wondering where each essay will deposit them." --Library Journal
Synopsis
The sequel to
Crosscurrents, which
Library Journal hailed as one of the best fly-fishing books of 2001.
Synopsis
The sequel to
Crosscurrents, which
Library Journal hailed as one of the best fly-fishing books of 2001.
About the Author
James R. Babb is the editor of Gray's Sporting Journal and author of Crosscurrents, which Library Journal hailed as "the best fly-fishing book" of 2001. He was born and grew up in East Tennessee, and has worked as a commercial lobster fisherman, a truck driver, a boatyard worker, a reporter, and a feature writer.