The New York Times published an insightful profile of Underground Fav Writer Thomas McGuane, whose new novel (Driving on the Rim) has just been released.

McGuane’s known among fly fishermen for his liberal application of fly fishing scenes in his novels, but also for The Longest Silence; his seminal collection of fly fishing essays that many feel define the sport better than any other single book (“book on tape” version here).

McGuane’s latest novel will no doubt find its way to the Underground’s bookshelf, but Charles McGrath’s insightful profile included this rather charged McGuane quote:

“Like everyone, I have that general sense that we’ve been cast adrift. It’s almost banal to say it, it’s so obvious. But at the same time, living out here I have sense that I’m living in a world that hasn’t quite changed. I see it in some of the kids who work here — they’re still so in touch with natural world.”

These days there are plenty of good writers practicing the art, and yet McGuane continues to deliver single-sentence insights that rock me back on my heels.

A year ago I suggested our lives changed when a brick got tossed through the plate glass windows that contain our existence, and that nowadays, the bricks were coming with increasing regularity.

It’s a theme that apparently plays out in Driving on the Rim:

But like much of Mr. McGuane’s recent writing, it’s also partly about the collision of the Old West and the New. Dr. Pickett finds himself involved in a very contemporary malpractice prosecution but also spends a lot of time hunting and fishing and thinking about the old days.

Fly fishermen have long described their sport as an escape from everyday life; should we add the concept of fly fishing as an anchor against the changes washing over us with increasing frequency?

See you in the bookshelves, Tom Chandler.

Posted in Opinion, Writing and tagged , , .