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Nick Walker reviews Trout Madness (1989) by
Robert Traver
Trout Madness by Robert Traver is not a novel, rather a collection of short stories put together in a 178-page book. Although the chapters, each a story in itself, are completely unconnected chronologically speaking, they are clearly of the same thread and each is related to the other by the authors love of all things fish. The stories take place during a period in our history that most anglers today would have a hard time imagining. The secluded lakes and virgin streams depicted in Traver's stories are literally teeming with wild brookies, and Traver never fails to head home at day's end with a creel packed to the brim with fresh trout. Being a product of the catch-and-release school, it was not always palatable to read of a fisherman taking 10 or 12 wild brookies for the frying pan, but it is important to keep in mind that when these stories were written, the world was a different place. In Michigan's upper peninsula, where Traver does his fishing, brook trout outnumbered people 100,000 to 1. One aspect of Traver's writing that I really enjoyed was his ability to talk about the things in life that are so pure and so simple and talk about them in a way that made them seem like the most important things in the world. I often found myself wishing I could have lived like Traver did. His style made me nostalgic for days past when the hands on a watch meant nothing and a fisherman's only worry was that of the sun's position in the sky and whether or not he had a cold beer waiting for him in the car after a day spent on the water. Traver does an excellent job of telling stories that grip the reader with tales of days spent catching trout, but he also has a knack for telling stories that have less to do with trout than they do with the people that chase them. He manages to blend nicely the serious writing on fish and fishing and the less serious writing about the crazy things fishermen will do to find and catch fish. He writes in detail about the wacky characters that inhabited northern Michigan in his day. There is no doubt that Traver has a robust sense of humor, and several of his stories about his fishing-related debauchery made me laugh out loud. Underneath the humor, one can clearly see that Traver had nothing more or nothing less than a full-blown case of Trout Madness, which is described on the cover of the book as an “incurable disease.” I think that any true fisherman can relate to Traver's plight, and the ease with which the reader is able to see through the author's eyes is one aspect of the book that makes it so enjoyable to read. Traver has no qualms about leaving his chores for tomorrow, as long as he can go fishing today. He loves trout and the outdoors more than anything else. He is definitely my kind of guy.-- NW Statistics About This Book Click here to go back to Book Reviews. |
