A River Runs Through It

"This book, and the Robert Redford film that’s based on it, have probably brought more people to fishing than any other. At least since Izaak Walton. It’s an explicitly autobiographical novella that is both beautiful and, ultimately, about beauty. Beauty and impermanence. Loss. Fishing, I think, is also about these things: the search for, and the impossibility of holding onto, what is most beautiful. Fishing is part of what holds Norman and his brother Paul together in the story. It is scenery, subject and metaphor at once. Stylistically, the book is a mix. Much of it is written in this brisk style— Hemingway esque, I suppose you could say. It moves along at a clip. And then, scattered throughout, there are these segments—a sentence here, a paragraph there, sometimes a scene—that make you stop and gasp. Maclean was able to summon this magnificent biblical cadence, which of course is tied to the story itself. ‘In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing’: that’s the famous opening. And the final two or three paragraphs of the book? Well, ‘exquisite’ is the right word. Heart-breaking, too. I’ve truly never read anything closer to perfect than those last lines."

"This book is ostensibly about fly fishing, and the author’s relationship with his brother Paul. The story is about an older brother, who is never named, who talks about his brother, also called Paul – a genius fisherman who is very troubled. Paul gets arrested, gets drunk, goes with whores and ends up being murdered. The whole book is a tribute to his troubled younger brother whom he couldn’t help but felt immensely close to. He just adored his younger brother and wanted to protect him. What really struck me about this book was the love between these two brothers. That is what I felt a relationship between brothers should and could be – that some people actually have, and which I missed out on. Of course, there has to be some rough and tumble. It’s quite interesting that when I was growing up, the idea of fighting with your brother was considered something that would knock the edges off, that was normal and healthy in a sense. I remember punching my brother in the face when I was 14, the first time in my life when I was big and strong enough to do it, and it felt great. Then I felt this terrible guilt. He couldn’t save him because he didn’t and couldn’t know him. The unknowability of people runs right through this story. It’s the people we live with, love and should know who in the end elude us, says the narrator. I think that is very true – how elusive the people closest to us are. On the one hand these brothers love each other very deeply, and on the other they don’t know each other. “It’s the people we live with, love, and should know, who in the end elude us, says the narrator.” But what shocked me was the love between them – the open and adoring love of the older brother who wants to protect his younger brother from his flaws and damage. That’s the way I see it between me and my brother. I’m quite flawed and damaged. I was the bad guy, the one getting into trouble. He was mature and sensible, while I was the one who took drugs and misbehaved. He always really enjoyed me getting into trouble. Nothing made him happier than to see me fuck up. So what appealed to me about this book was the older brother wanting to protect his younger sibling. Exactly right. The quote from Cain is: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”. And the answer was: No, I don’t give a fuck about my brother. I hate my fucking brother. That’s the other truth told to us in the Bible. But this is a book about someone who really is his brother’s keeper, and takes that role very seriously. That is why the book speaks to me so much. I’m a fairly useless, troubled person, or I certainly was as a teenager. But I could do one thing, and that was write. And Paul could do one thing, and that was fish. This is a fantasy book for me and for all tortured souls – I was one, but I’m not anymore – who imagine an early, tragic death when everyone is sorry for what they did, all the love finally goes in your direction and everyone agrees what a great and beautiful person you were."