Customer Reviews

The Earth is Enough

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In the preface to a later book, the late Harry Middleton said he was asked by an young student how much of this books were true. His answer was, "More than I want."

This is the story of a young boy growing up in a military family, stationed at a staging area during the Vietnam War. When one of his friends is killed - and Harry badly injured - playing with a grenade they found in the jungle, Harry is packed off to his grandfather, a subsistence farmer in the Ozarks of Arkansas. There, with his grandfather, granduncle and the old American Indian, Elias Wonder, Harry is healed, not just of the trauma of seeing his friend disappear in a "pink mist" but healed as well of a great deal of other things he may not have known ailed him.

As Harry learns the rhythms of the land and the mysteries of Starlight Creek from his grandfather and the irascible Elias Wonder, he grows and the reader grows with him. Like David James Duncan's _The River Why_, this is a book about growing up and coming of age, and flyfishing - that "hopeless addiction to trout and the push of water against your legs" - is simply the author's narrative tool.

Harry must have been a more patient and willing teenager than I was, or perhaps time has colored over Harry's experience, but there is nothing else to criticize. Beautifully written, exceptionally well told, full of life, sadness, humor, death and understanding.

And if flyfishing became an addiction for Harry, that was to haunt him in his later years, well, he was warned and in any event there are far worse fates.

I've read a good number of books that deal with the subject of fly-fishing, streams, trout and country living, but I've never read one that makes me see the images of my home; home stream; home woods; home folk, quite the way Middleton does; he is superb.

Middleton's pen works just like the streams and life he writes about; it wanders, meanders, gurgles, sprits, colors and calls: beckons you to come along - regardless of whether you see where you're going or not. You will gladly follow and are generously rewareded for your efforts. Middleton is such an artist in delivery, that one must be patient in order to see the full palette of his work. It is well worth the wait.

The captivation experienced within the color and tale found in Middleton's work, is only the lure for the more meaningful and deep-rooted feelings he exposes and we try so desperately to hide from.

The meaning of words like: home, place, belonging, passion, love, devotion, loyalty and the like are all brought to clarity through Middleton's pen.

Middleton pens the human condition into hues and shades we canot overlook; cannot run from; they envelop you and gracefully force you to look deep into the soul that makes us who we truly are.

This book may be best read after living the first 50 years of ones life; else it's wisdom would most likely be lost. But I surely wish all would read it - at least the first time - early in life, then pick it up again later on; read it again, and drink in the full meaning: drink long and full. If only the simple wisdoms pointed out here could be learned early on ... life would be far more enjoyed, than simply endured.

The rest of Middleton's books are equally salient and soulful reminders of what truly matters in life. And chorus the statement eloquently posited here, "The Earth is Enough"; take care of it, there's only one. When it is gone, it's ALL GONE.

Middleton served up all the emotions, from the joys of life and nature to the sorrows of death. I pretty much love all books about fly fishing. This one will definitely be added to my "for the love of fly fishing" list. My favorite quote from the book is the one by Uncle Albert, who said, "Take up the fly rod, and the shotgun, and before you know it, you're an outcast, a social leper, rejected by your family, despised by your neighbors, mistrusted by your community....The final question is, should any man turn his back on ambition, profit, security, and a parking place in the city, just to pursue a fish?" That quote pretty much captures the life of Uncle Albert and Grandfather Emerson who were tasked with raising their young relative in the Ozarks of Arkansas. Add a little influence from their half crazy Native American neighbor and you understand where the title comes from. The old fellas loved and praised the earth like Native Americans do. My only complaint with this book is that it was almost too heavy with sadness and I don't handle death well. I much preferred his book, "On the Spine of Time", which was lighter and funnier.

I didn't know anything about this book before ordering. It came up as a suggestion on my Amazon account as a result of my buying several other flyfishing related books. This book is extremely well written in a descriptive, intelligent manner. Even if you have never fly fished in your life, the narrative is inviting, contemplative, warm, intelligent and heart warming. I read alot. This book is high on my list of all time for best book ever read. I encourage you to experience the pleasure and tears this book produces...

This book has it all. It's funny, touching, beautifully written, easy to read, contains life lessons - what more could you want? And I don't even fly fish!!! Buy it, read it, keep it, re-read it. I first read it years ago, and keep buying copies as gifts.

Harry should take his place next to other great authors. Themessage that this book carries is in the depth of caring and auniversal consideration for life, along with the message that these things do not come from the material comforts on which we have we have come to depend. I think of this book and its lessons often in this era when our children eat drugs like candy, flock to the artificiality of backsteet urban culture and shoot each other just to "belong". I think it offers a moral reality that they yearn for. I agree with the reviewer from WA, this should be made by Redford into a movie. Maybe with Newman or Ralph Waite with some of the old" Walton" cast (especially the narrator). Does anyone know how to contact him? This book will remain number one on my bookshelf. Its too bad we lost Harry so early. Now we have to hope some publisher will buy the rights and re-issue "Starlight Creek Angling Society" so the rest of us can read the continuing saga.

This is a remarkable book, while enticing to the fly fisherman, it should be read by all. It's truly a tale of living in our world, not with just the period of our brief mortality, but a world for eternity with all of God's creatures. It's certainly not a religious book but a book filled with the joy of hope and living.

A story that grabs you immediately and holds you tight. What a great experience! I'm sure no young man would ask to live in a world without modern conveniences and yet I'm sure Harry wouldn't have traded his life for that of any other. Sure impressed me, so much so that immediately sent the book off to my son the minute I finished it. Only wish I could find it in a library edition. It's a book to be treasured.

I read at least five to ten fly-fishing books per year. However, this book should not be considered a fishing only type of book. I too have lent this book to friends who do not fish and they were just as moved as I. A very powerfull book, best read by light of a roaring fire in the woods somewhere. In my top ten books of all time. Harry Middleton, werever you are, tight lines, and beautiful sunsets.

I was fortunate to have purchased a 1st edition of this book in 1996 and consider it to be one of the indispensible books in my personal library. I am a regular volunteer at the local public school and this is the one book I take to the school to read to the high school literature classes every year. This book is not a book about fishing but a book about life. Buy this book for your friends, family, and English teachers, I do!! A book to be treasured, truly an American Classic. Lynn