Review by Booklist Review
The titular "home waters" refers to the Blackfoot River, Seeley Lake, and the other Montana fishing locales where four generations of the Maclean clan have cast a line and hoped to snag a rainbow trout memorable enough to merit inclusion in the family lore. In this hybrid memoir, ecological history, and love letter to the meditative wonders of fishing, Maclean charts his Scottish ancestors' arrival in Montana, his minister grandfather's building of the still-standing lake cabin, and the tragic death of his charismatic uncle Paul, whose brief life was so poignantly memorialized by John's father, Norman, in the critical and commercial classic, A River Runs through It (1976). Into this personal chronicle, Maclean weaves an account of Meriwether Lewis' passage through the area and documents modern-day conservation efforts. His Hemingway-esque prose is as clear as a mountain stream, flowing with a poetic cadence and lyrically describing the many splendid natural treasures to be found under the Big Sky. A sure bet for readers who enjoy American and natural history and a must-read for fishing enthusiasts.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Maclean (Fire on the Mountain) offers a lyrical love letter to Montana's Blackfoot River, fishing, and his storied family in this captivating memoir. His father Norman Maclean's 1976 novella, A River Runs Through It, brought the area worldwide attention and unpacked the murder of Norman's brother, Paul. With this narrative as an inspiration, Maclean chronicles his relationship with the river, beginning with his ancestors' move from Scotland to northwestern Montana, where the family built a cabin a century ago. Though Maclean's job as a journalist forced him to leave Montana in the '70s, he returned to Blackfoot often. Like his father, he "needed both worlds, a high-powered intellectual life and the life of the woods and rivers." He shares family stories passed through the generations--such as one about losing a fish in the car of his father's friend--as well as the "conflicting stories and wild rumors" around his enigmatic uncle Paul, who some believed was murdered because of gambling debts. Fans of his father's novella will relish the details that served as its inspiration and are here rendered in Maclean's sharp yet poetic prose as tribute to a "pantheon of notable family fishers." This richly observed narrative is sure to reel readers in. Agent: Jennifer Lyons, Jennifer Lyons Literary. (June)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A moving memoir of a family's love affair with the Blackfoot River in Montana, made famous by A River Runs Through It, the novella written by Maclean's father, Norman. As the author of this book makes clear, the Blackfoot River holds a particularly special place in Maclean family history. In 1909, the Rev. John Norman Maclean, John's grandfather, moved to Missoula to become pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. A decade later, he got a permit to build "the family cabin, a simple log affair…at Seeley Lake, fifty-five road miles northeast of Missoula on the edge of what is now the million-plus acre Bob Marshall Wilderness." The cabin has now been in the family's hands for "five generations and counting." Beginning with his earliest memories of fly-fishing with his father on the river, Maclean passionately explores the history of his family's life in the region as they became well-respected members of the community and developed an abiding love for the land. The author also digs into deeper history, noting that for centuries, Native peoples "wore a trail along the river as they traveled through the Blackfoot Valley and across the Continental Divide, out and back to the buffalo hunting grounds in the Missouri River country to the east." Maclean then follows the path of Meriwether Lewis, who, along with his men and a few Nez Perce guides, passed through the area after separating from William Clark. The view from Lewis and Clark Pass, writes the author, is one of the most breathtaking in Montana, a place where the landscape remains "much as it appeared centuries ago…a land with a long-term memory." In addition to patient nature writing and an introspective approach to the literary inspiration he has received from the land, Maclean discusses the genesis of Norman's famous book and mystery surrounding the death of one of the characters. Lovers of literature and nature will be captivated by this heartfelt tribute to place and family. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
