Customer Reviews

Crosscurrents: A Fly Fisher's Progress

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Perhaps my title is insufficient. The progress is more or less identical to what any reasonable human being would want in the late 20th and early 21'st century.

A man of insight, regrets, decent moral grounding and capable of facing the difficulties of the realities of ecology (a/k/a Cranes and Rainbow trout) James Babb has molded a life worth living. Would that we were all so talented and perceptive. A biography more than a fish story is to be had here.

Babb is one hell of a writer, and Crosscurrents is about more than just fish and antique split bamboo rods. It's about one man's spiritual journey from his boyhood home in the hills of East Tennessee to the lobsterman's life in the cold North Atlantic, to the hills of Maine, where he now resides. Plenty of adventures along the way, unforgettable characters, cultural observations, literary and historical allusions, and some really fine writing. I've never thrown a dry fly in my life, but I loved it, anyway. Bravo, Mr. James Babb!

James Babb's River Music was great but Cross Currents, after a nice opening, is just another travel/fishing book. I was disappointed.

Although this is a well written book I did not find it as interesting as his first book 'Fly Fishing Fool.' The cover picture/ scene will lead you to believe it is a book of trout fishing stories, instead, it is heavily salt water exploits oriented. If you are into 'salt' you can add one more star.