I'm flyfisher in Korea. I think there is no necessity for talking about this book. Because this is so famous book to fishermans, as you know. Specially, this paperback edition is good for your wallet, with no omission. In a word, Full content, Good price!

If you don't know about this famous book by the inimitable Walton, you have a lot to look forward to. Purporting to be an account of a 5-day gentlemen's fishing idyll (when gentlemen were gentlemen, and the English countryside was at once bountiful and near to hand), it is in fact a deeply engaging nostalgia trip into a never-never land of pastoral bliss which has no exact parallel in world literature.

To say "evocative of simpler, happier times" is to barely hint at the near-mystical fragrance of this enchanting volume. Three high-spirited protagonists ("Piscator", "Venator", and "Auceps"), devoted to three rival outdoor avocations (fishing, hunting, and falconing, respectively), meet on a "fine, fresh May morning"; ramble across the countryside in search of fine fishing and hearty times; sing, banter, and versify; recount ancient wisdom (of often dubious validity) regarding the habits and temper of over a dozen local fish species; and encounter a sampling of innkeepers, milkmaids, gypsies, and various other idealized rural types. This is a refuge book for quiet evenings, one of those unaccountably transporting narratives which no charmed reader has ever wanted to reach the end.

Some history: stolen in parts from precedents written as far back as 1450, Walton's work is nearly as early as it could be and still be readable without a line-by-line explanatory gloss ("compleat" is about as arcane as it gets). First published in 1653, there have been well over 100 editions in print. Some of the earlier ones contain Lang's 28-page introduction to the author's life, the structure of the work, and its publishing history, all of which is superbly sensitive and informative. Noteworthy are the 80+ illustrations produced by Sullivan (again, available in some of the older editions and their reprints), which are unselfconsciously exquisite -- naively rendered country scenes and character sketches; finely wrought studies of dry flies and of the various species of fish mentioned in the book; and ornately framed images of famous fishermen "taken" from the evidently superb engraved portraits of Major's 1824 edition.

The author was a minor legend in his own time. Held in the highest regard by all who knew him, this "excellent old man" suffered many tragedies throughout his long life (from the public murder of his beloved king to various family deaths and personal debilities), but he never lost his rare sweetness of temper. He wrote numerous other treatises, but "The Compleat Angler" early on rendered him a literary immortal.

I have had this book beside me for more than 20 years, not for its guidance about fishing (though this is pleasant), but for the simple, unaffected but eloquent beauty of its 17th century prose. A lovely, idealized, Arcadian sort of England comes to life, and it is a very nice place in which to dip your mind a while.

I once saw Thomas McGuane at a booksigning and asked specifically about this book. He said it was semi-autobiographical, dealing with the enormous pitfalls of fame. Chester Pomeroy is a timeless character--funny, damaged, and mythic. An Everyman for our age. McGuane's prose resembles shards of glass on a downtown sidewalk in deepest summer: reflective, but insistent that we look at the depths between the spaces.

Just the image of crawling out of an elephant's sphincter is worth the price of admission. Genius.

Not the best novel I've ever read, surely. Probably not even the best novel Thomas McGuane ever wrote. But it's definitely my favorite.

It's hilarious and awful, with its elliptical, toothless, and wildly unreliable screaming-misfit narrator careening pitiably through what might be a midlife crisis if we had any confidence that he was going to make it to 50. (It's a major win for Chet Pomeroy when he finally remembers his dog's name.)

The dialogue is so spare that in my first hurried read through the book I could hardly understand what the characters were saying to each other. Now huge hunks of it are in my memory. ("I have a friend who owes you a minimum of a lawsuit." "That's a very silky opening," says the agent, "but I'm always being sued.")

This is a very, very funny book, even when it is also being poignant and awful. I just love it.

Chester Hunnicutt Pomeroy est un héros des temps modernes comme notre époque n'en produit plus. Il est cocaïnomane et enlève ses dents pour un rien, il se cloue à la porte de son ex avec un marteau en forme de "colt de Jesse James" et déblatère à tout va - Contrairement à la croyance populaire, la Grande Ourse n'est pas morte dans un accident d'avion avec Buddy Holly - Les papes Borgia avaient un téléphone dans chaque pièce. Les mots, Chet, surveille les mots - lui conseille Catherine, son ex-épouse. Les mots, c'est la force de Mc Guane - j'avais l'impression que la nuit avait rempli un chèque que le jour ne pourrait pas encaisser - une force qui balaie tout sur son passage. Et, de toute l'ouvre de Mc Guane, c'est Panama qui fait la part belle à la poésie. Quant à ce héros - élu plus "grand pervers dépravé d'Amérique" - il ressemble surtout à un quidam quelconque habité par une soif de burlesque et d'absurde. Et de poésie sauvage, échevelée. Ce gars-là a une espèce d'aura que ni son amnésie, ni son inclinaison au vice n'arrivent à entâcher, comme si une lessive surnaturelle lui lavait le coeur de sa propre boue. Il peut se rouler dans le ridicule, l'urine, Marceline et la contrition tour à tour, rien ne retranche à cette fascination qu'il exerce sur le lecteur.

Karen Robards did a good job of telling her story about a family in the deep south in 1769. Most of us have little knowledge of the eveyday life during that time so Robards did a good job of researching her subject. Religion plays a big part in the family life of a southern preacher. His four daughters are who the story centers around. Susannah is the key person who shows southern hospitality and sweet innocence in the matter of the heart. The scene is ripe for her to be swept off her feet by a young dashing--reprobate. Robards spins her yarn telling how these two opposites' paths cross and love blossoms. This was a quick and interesting read. It has a wonderful twist on the prince charming subject. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in learning about southern comfort, history, sibling rivalry and the rags to riches theme.

Reading McGuane is like slowing down for a car wreck. Against your better judgement, the writer masterfully holds your attention, making you feel more voyeur than reader as you witness lives coming apart in silent despair. McGuane has a nimble wit and a style that can be dazzling. He's a writer's writer, an author who revokes Hemmingway but with a modern (or a 1970s coming of age)sensibility. Like the Fords and Chevies that populate his works, Nobody'a Angel takes awhile to get into gear, but once it does, it moves with a force and purpose that makes for a confident ride. If you are new to McGuane I would start with Panama or Nothing But Blue Skies. Certainly a writer worth reading.

This book's as much about fly fishing as The Big Two-Hearted River is. Without ever deviating from its straightforward purpose -- to explore the good people Chatham's met in a lifetime of flyfishing the San Francisco Bay and points north for chinook and stripers -- Chatham manages also to pen a meditation on what makes people good, and how challenge (including the challenge of fly fishing well) nurtures that goodness. The book's also a love story to a Northern California that used to be, and belongs in any Bay Area or Northern Californian's bookshelf along with Bay Area Landmarks, The Flavors of Home and other well-written celebrations of that place's home geography.

And the details about fishing, in bays, estuaries and rivers, are fun.

If you have any doubts about the literary value of this book, note the foreword by Thomas McGuane -- who wouldn't muck around writing forewords for trash.

Loved the book, Russell.

For those looking for modern commentary on the "sporting life" or a journey into the mind of men who have trouble with modern gender issues then this is a good place to start. McGuane seems to be trying to fill Hemingway's waders (particularly "In Our Time") with this collection; he certainly conveys a similar tone.

If you have a background in hunting and/or fishing then these stories will likely appeal to you. If not, there is still one story worth reading simply because it aptly demonstrates why we need to abandon the myth of the male who expresses no emotions for fear of showing his weakness.

Unfortunately it appears to be out of print but it is worth tracking down.

I haven't read a whole lot else of Mcguane's material ,but having spent a some time in the region described, I feel that he has captured a sense of the harsh allure of the "back country" of the Florida Bay mangroves, as well as the rugged eccentricity of the old-time Key West "Conchs" and resident/refugees from other parts of the country. I'm not sure that I ever really grasped why it so important to the protagonist to become a bone-fishing guide that he would risk death at the hands of a comptetitor, but he seemed to be controlled by Destiny in a manner reminiscent of a hero of a classical Greek tragedy. I'd call it a good beach book, but anybody who has been to the Keys knows that the beach activity is a bit limited. Find yourself a nice courtyard patio or take a trip to Bahia Honda, cover yourself with sunscreen, and go to it.

This was the first McGuane book I read, some years ago. I was enthralled by his luminous cinematic prose, striking descriptions, juxtapositions, quandaries, and general commentary on human relations in 20th century America.

I could not stop reading this book. Have since read several others by McGuane and just picked up The Bushwhacked Piano. If memory serves, McGuane was one of Wallace Stegner's students in the creative writing program at Stanford years ago. Clearly, McGuane learned his lessons well.

Not only does 92 in the Shade sum up an entire generation, but it gives serious fiction readers the opportunity to read the language of a genius. Tom McGuane once told me in an interview that he made more money investing in real estate than in his career as a novelist. That sad statement amplified itself several years later when I was seeking a literary agent for my own pursuits. The first one I approached told me she had never heard of Tom McGuane after I explained that he was one of the few American novelists I really admired.(I didn't hire her.) 92 does an excellent job of illustrating the troubled fishing guide's state of mind, the lifestyle of the denizens of Key West, and the pathetic state of the country at the time. His brilliant prose provided me with an engrossingly twisted story. The style is distinctively McGuane who is a master of language and tough guy dialogue. He lives in a world all of his own. Many people don't understand his cynicism and negative take on every day happenings. All of which makes his work better that most others. I reread at least part of 92 each time I go to Key West, still, despite its commercialization, one of the greatest zany hang-outs in the history of the world.

Having spent a good portion of my life in the northern Rockies, I rarely miss a novel set in Montana. McGuane has written a few of the good ones. This book, however, is as disjointed and chaotic as a alcoholic's nightmare. There is a semblance of a plot and a few characters one might care about if they were more fully developed, but all in all, the book fails to ignite interest. The humor of McGuane's early novels is rare in this release. Only for the loyal McGuanist.

McGuane is my favorite novelist, mining territory that hits uncomfortably close to my own ranching, adulterous bones. Setting aside Larry McMurtry's dissipated and puzzling "review" of this book in a recent NY Review of Books, this is one of McGuane's more problematic novels. It is also his most interesting work in 12 years. It does not rival his best (Nobody's Angel) in either grim power or wit. Nevertheless, all the familiar ingredients are there - New West profiteers, doomed marriages, snowstorms on the Absarokas, suicides, revenge, the dead father figure with the endless shadow, and the tiring intra-family struggle for power with a capital "P." Maybe because these ingredients are ever-present we are starting to take McGuane's bleak elegance for granted.

The novel sputters a bit in the thoroughly rendered but self-indulgent hardcore cowboy scenes where the dignified old hand culls sick cows and tends to the calfing and generally displays a wealth of ranching motherwit that the average reader will find indecipherable. Hell, I run cattle and I found it distracting! What more than makes up for it are the razor-sharp exchanges between the characters and the sharply drawn quiet moments that fill the book.

My Uncle Wade loved this book. Not that my Uncle Wade is particularly well-read - and when I was a kid he took me to the Wyoming - Colorado State game and made me wet myself at the Circle K as a distraction to the clerk while he shoplifted beef jerky and tobacco. But my Uncle Wade knows Western Gothic. For my own self, I will just say that if you've ever spent a few fevered hours with your brother's wife at a Super 8, inoculated livestock on a Friday night, or hit someone with a pool cue, you will like this book.

The thing I like most about McGuane is his sense of humor regarding the overlooked. His characters are normal people. But they are also edgy. They are gritty and fleshy. I sense though that he would rather be on a horse than writing a novel. I know I would rather be on a horse right now. This is a good book. I also reccomend "Some Horses". It is a book of essay's he wrote that every horse or book fan should read. I just read it for the second time.

This book leaves you feeling just as the title says. Or maybe the title should've been, Something Left Out, or better yet it should have been titled, Boring.

This slim volume tells the story of Lucien Taylor, a man who walked away from his family and then tried to work his way back. It is sporadically effective in its representation of a self-destructive man and has an honest resolution, but its minimalist style distanced me from the characters. At times, I also felt the Heavy Hand of Symbolism, as in the character of Emily, who is apparently meant to represent the lure of the dangerous unknown.

I've read this great book in the past (twice) and stopped at this listing to buy some copies as Christmas gifts for friends. I can't believe the low "star" rating among Amazon's customers -- this is one of Thomas McGuane's best works. All of his novels are slim on plot but saturated with character(s) and atmosphere. He doesn't create who-done-it page-turners, but rather outstanding writing about slices of American life, usually a very thin slice that is fast disappearing. Something To Be Desired ranges from hilarious to sad to bizarre to realistic. Read this book.

When I noticed the critic's reference to Caleb Carr's "The Alienist" on the cover of "Panama", I was filled with anticipation. That's about as exciting as my experience with this novel ever got. "The Alienist" takes the reader on a fast-paced journey filled with thrilling mystery while incorporating numerous complex historical details and characters that become as interesting as the story. "Panama" attempts to tell a story that could be interesting and enthralling, but instead is weighed down by laborious descriptions and details. In addition, the reader is expected to move through the story with an uninteresting main character, a grown man who maintains an immature, junior-high-esque crush on two different women. At the end of the novel, the reader is subjected to an excrutiating scene between one of these women and the main character, as they discuss their relationship over her sleeping husband's hospital bed(as if the six-paragraph description of holding her arm wasn't painful enough!). The book does contain many historical details which an avid history fan may enjoy, but as a thriller, "Panama" fails to offer any thrills except for that of the reader finally getting through it, now able to move on to a more enthralling novel

As you will see from many of the customer reviews, this historical thriller is not a purely plot-driven page-turner, a la Robert Ludlum or Ken Follett. If that is what you are looking for, you will be disappointed. Rather, the author takes the time (and, yes, forces the reader to do so) setting a mood, at the same time capturing the spirit of the age and the tormented inner spirit of the protagonist (Henry Adams). This is first and foremost a book about Adams' emotional recovery, so, no, it is not as fast-paced and action-packed as The Alienist. (I liked both books very much, but they are different--perhaps the marketers are at fault for raising false expectations.) But, so long as you are willing to savor a mood, and to arrive slowly at your destination, this is an excellent read.

I read this book several months ago and so I don't remember all the details of it. I do remember that it was a very enjoyable read. The plot is very clever and complex, the characters are interesting and well defined, and there is some action and suspense in some parts. The best thing about this book is its atmosphere; you really feel transported to late nineteenth century Paris. I wouldn't say that it was an outstanding novel, but it definately deserves a lot more than the one star some reviewers gave it.