The Fish's Eye Essays About Angling and the Outdoors

by Frazier, Ian

• ISBN13: 9780312421694
• ISBN10: 0312421699
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-03-01
• Publisher: Picador

Summary

In The Fish's Eye: Essays About Angling and the Outdoors , Ian Frazier explores his lifelong passion for fishing, fish, and the aquatic world. He sees the angler's environment all around him'”in New York's Grand Central Station, in the cement-lined pond of a city park, in a shimmering bonefish flat in the Florida Keys, in the trout streams of the Rocky Mountains. He marvels at the fishing in the turbid Ohio River by downtown Cincinnati, where a good bait for catfish is half a White Castle french fry. The incidentals of the angling experience, the who and the where of it, interest him as much as what he catches and how. The essays contain sharply focused observations of the American outdoors, a place filled with human alterations and detritus that somehow remain defiantly unruined. Frazier's simple love of the sport lifts him to a straight-ahead angling description that's among the best contemporary writing on the subject. The Fish's Eye brings together twenty years of heartfelt, funny, and vivid essays on a timeless pursuit where so many mysteries, both human and natural, coincide. Ian Frazier is the author of Great Plains , On the Rez , Family , Coyote v. Acme , and Dating Your Mom . A frequent contributor to The New Yorker , he lives in Montclair, New Jersey. In The Fish''s Eye , Frazier explores his lifelong passion for fishing, fish, and the aquatic world. He sees the angler''s environment all around him'”in New York''s Grand Central Station, in the cement-lined pond of a city park, in a shimmering bonefish flat in the Florida keys, in the trout streams of the Rocky Mountains. He marvels at the fishing in the turbid Ohio River by downtown Cincinatti, where a good bait for catfsh is half a White Castle french fry. The incidentals of the angling experience, the who and the where of it, interest this beloved New Yorker contributor and author as much as what he catches and how. The essays collected in this book'”including Frazier''s famous profile of master angler Jim Deren, late proprietor of the Angler''s Roost, a New York tackle store'”afford many sharply focused observations of the American outdoors, a place filled with human alterations and detritus that somehow remains defiantly unruined. Frazier''s simple love of the sport inspires one straight-ahead angling description after another; the prose in The Fish''s Eye ranks with the best contemporary writing on this subject. Bringing together twenty years of heartfelt, funny, and vivid essays on a timeless pursuit where so many mysteries, both human and natural, coincide, this book "deserves a place in every tackle box in every creek bank in America" ( San Francisco Examiner ). "There is nothing so rare as a perfect book . . . The Fish's Eye , by Ian Frazier, is one of these happy few . . . It is a charming and idiosyncratic collection in which Frazier reflects on his life of fly-fishing, the great outdoors, the natural worlds of the city and suburb, and their unique travails and pleasures."'” Chicago Tribune "There is nothing so rare as a perfect book . . . The Fish's Eye , by Ian Frazier, is one of these happy few . . . It is a charming and idiosyncratic collection in which Frazier reflects on his life of fly-fishing, the great outdoors, the natural worlds of the city and suburb, and their unique travails and pleasures."'” Chicago Tribune "Trust Ian Frazier to break new ground in the literature about fishing . . . his humor and imagination infuse the seventeen essays . . . with the manic enthusiasm few anglers can ever explain."'” The New York Times Book Review "In his subject matter and his narrative persona, Ian Frazier'”a writer whose investigations of the contemporary American West ( Great Plains , On the Rez ) unpredictably combine genuine power and an engaging breeziness of manner'”particularly resembles John McPhee. In any event, Frazier, like McPhee or like Edward Hoagland, is a man who always stays in touch, psychologically speaking, with the fal

Author Biography

Ian Frazier is the author of Great Plains, On the Rez, Family, as well as Coyote v. Acme and Dating Your Mom. A frequent contributor to The New Yorker, he lives in Montclair, New Jersey.

Table of Contents

Anglers	3	(5)
Harlem and Hudson	5	(5)
An Angler at Heart	10	(39)
On the Ausable	49	(9)
On Urban Shores	58	(11)
Fishing Without Dad	69	(5)
Big Fish, Little Fish	74	(6)
It's Hard to Eat Just One	80	(6)
In the Brain	86	(7)
A Lovely Sort of Lower Purpose	93	(7)
Guiding Guys	100	(6)
Fishing in Town	106	(7)
From Wilderness to Wal-Mart	113	(7)
Bad Advice	120	(7)
Catching Monsters After Dark	127	(7)
The Great Indoors	134	(7)
Five Fish	141