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There are two things no dedicated fly-fisher can really have enough of: a decent selection of flies on the stream and a decent selection of John Gierach off of it. Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders should go a good way toward satisfying the latter. In this “greatest hits” of essays culled from Gierach’s previous collections, the genial wit and astute observer behind Another Lousy Day in Paradise, Dances with Trout, and Trout Bum reels in 40 of his favorite keepers. Considering the quality of Gierach’s writing, calling Headwaters a “treasury” is no fish tale at all.
Reading Leaky Waders is like recalling some memorably productive afternoons on the stream with an old fishing buddy. Writing about his sport and his adventures, Gierach is naturally writing about much more: “I’ve always tried to figure out what a story is about,” he’ll admit readily. “It’s something other than the fishing but that wouldn’t have come up without the fishing.” As in “The Purist,” an essay from The View from Rat Lake: it’s vintage Gierach, an excuse to use fishing to open a window onto human nature. “What is it about fly-fishing,” he asks,
that attracts … those people who must engineer a corner of their lives–sometimes a pretty large corner–where things have to be done properly? I’m not sure I know, but whatever it is, it’s why the sport can be used to define the very existence of the practitioner.
From there, he connects, with deft precision, the seemingly diverse strands of his own experience as a plumber’s helper, a fire on the Cuyahoga River, Zen, a little fishing history, a brief meditation on the dry fly, B.B. King, such noted anglers as G.E.M. Skues and Gierach’s own great fishing accomplice A.K. Best, Idaho’s Three Rivers Ranch on the Henry’s Fork, and a graceful dismissal of snootiness and pretension. It’s a skillful performance. Before you’re finished with Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders, you’ll find 39 more that are just as good. –Jeff Silverman
Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders collects forty of John Gierach’s finest essays on fishing from six of his books. These essays are seasoned by a keen sense of observation and a deep knowledge and love of fishing lore. Whether he’s catching fish or musing on the ones that got away, Gierach always writes with grace, style, passion, and wit. His fans don’t need to be told, because it has already happened to them. All it really takes is a few paragraphs. Open up any one of John Gierach’s perennially popular fishing tales, and just like that, it’s all over. He’s got you — hook, line, and sinker. Sports Illustrated got it right with this comparison: “If Mark Twain were alive and a modern-day fly fisherman, he still would be hard put to top John Gierach in the one-liner department”. The Richmond Times-Dispatch speaks for countless readers in calling Gierach “as funny, sad, irreverent, and wise as they come”, and fisherman-writer-publisher Nick Lyons calls Gierach’s writing “as human and witty and memorable and perceptive as any prose of its kind”.
With Headwaters, which arrives just in time for Father’s Day, the author selects and introduces forty of his personal favorites from bestsellers past, including such classics as “Camp Coffee” and “On the Road” from Trout Bum, “The Purist” and “In Camp” from The View from Rat Lake, as well as “Montana” and the title essay from Even Brook Trout Get the Blues. As passionate as it is effortlessly hip, Headwaters is the ideal introduction for a new legion of Gierach fans, and a perfect catch for Gierach’s already devoted readers.
Order Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders from Amazon for $9.59
