The Believer

March 1, 2024
During the pandemic, Coggins, author of The Optimist: A Case for the Fly Fishing Life (2021), became very aware of how reaching middle age whittled away his remaining time. That inspired him to, post-pandemic, take all the fly-fishing trips he had put off, pursuing trout in Patagonia, the Spanish Pyrenees, and the U.S.; Atlantic salmon in Norway and Scotland; and bonefish, permit, and tarpon in Cuba and Belize. Coggins emphasizes the basic angling truth, "To fish properly, you need time," not expensive tackle. Riffs on The Sun Also Rises and Steve McQueen in Bullitt illustrate other key angling concepts. He clearly explains angling terms, saying that a certain dry fly is "smaller than a chocolate chip" in foreshadowing the challenge of landing a big trout. Coggins plumbs connections between angling and life with loved ones; his account of negotiating the Patagonia trip with his girlfriend is a masterful analysis of gender relations. Glimpses of Bruce Chatwin, Butch Cassidy, Rainer Maria Rilke, bad beer, and a polo match bring Coggins' celebration of fly fishing to life.

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Starred review from February 1, 2024
A global fishing trip that hooks more than fish. There is life, and then there is fly-fishing. Coggins believes that the second of these can provide crucial insights into the first, through the patience required, the unique mixture of simplicity and complexity, the connection to the natural environment, the lessons of failure, and the thrill of success. He covered some of this ground in his 2014 book The Optimist, but this book is more personal and candid and less technical. At the age of 45, which he thought would be the middle of his life, the author embarked on a yearlong tour that included Patagonia, Scotland, Spain, Norway, Belize, and even Cuba, as well as various parts of the U.S. As Coggins recounts, sometimes he landed a good catch, and sometimes he went home empty-handed. Nonetheless, his excursions were always journeys of self-discovery, and Coggins found the space and time to ask and answer crucial questions about his life and his connections to others. Along the way, he met an assortment of interesting people, an eccentric brotherhood bound by a love of the cast, and developed hard-won wisdom, for which "there's no short-cut, no self-help book, no retreat, no guru, no mountaintop, no fad diet, no hack, no money-back guarantee." Coggins eventually decided that he would remain an enthusiastic amateur, an occasional caster of the lure. That, he notes, is enough for him, perhaps more than enough. He concludes: "I think I've arrived at a better balance, based on something I already knew: you can survive very well with less fishing, or anything else for that matter. You'll be alright." That, indeed, is the thought to take away from this meditative, enjoyable book. An engaging personal journey about finding what you need to find and keeping it in your heart.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.