A Place on the Water: An Angler's Reflections on Home [Paperback]

Jerry Dennis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 1996

More than a collection of fishing stories, A Place on the Water is a passionate and eloquent exploration of subjects with broad appeal: love of land and water, informed and unsentimental appreciation of nature, and outrage at changes that threaten to obliterate places we can no longer afford to take for granted. In clear and sparkling prose, Jerry Dennis transports us to a world that every angler dreams of-where the very next cast will be the one that hooks something enormous and wonderful.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Home for Dennis ( It's Raining Frogs and Fishes ) is Michigan's Upper Peninsula. There he has fished streams from the Soo in the East to rivers in Ontonagan County in the West, adding an occasional trip to the northernmost area of the Lower Peninsula. Although his father was addicted to bass fishing, Dennis early became an aficionado of angling for trout. He also developed a fondness for canoeing; one of his book's best passages chronicles a trip down the roiling white waters of the Presque Isle River. Another chapter covers his efforts to prove that Ernest Hemingway, who spent several summers as a youth in the U.P., was not writing about the Two Hearted River in his famous story bearing that title. The collection, gathered from pieces that have appeared in the New York Times , Outdoor Life and other publications, will interest ecologists, campers and nature lovers of any stripe or speckle.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Pleasant essays--five of which won first-prize awards from the Outdoor Writers Association of America--on a youth spent fishing and canoeing the lakes and rivers of northern Michigan, by Dennis (It's Raining Frogs and Fishes, 1992--not reviewed). Having grown up in the 1960's in the vicinity of Michigan's Silver and Long lakes and Au Sable and Boardman rivers, Dennis is able to write of waters once teeming with fish but now barren--and, happily, of once-barren waters now full of fish. He seems to have done a lot of his fishing at night, claiming that nocturnal angling offers ``your best hope of deceiving a large brown trout with an artificial fly.'' In one piece, he and his teenage buddies jump a fence in the dark of night to fish a string of farm ponds in the middle of a pasture filled with grazing buffalo. In others, like ``A New-Moon Bass'' and ``Night Paddling,'' Dennis recalls fishing with his father and floating ``through the darkness on muggy summer nights.'' In 1970, he tells us, he observed hundreds of lake trout circling hypnotically in the glow of dock lights. Though a pilgrimage to the Fox River (Hemingway's model for ``Big Two- Hearted River'') disappoints him, Dennis is pleased to meet Robert Traver, the late author of Anatomy of a Murder. Traver, a former state supreme court justice, delights Dennis by taking him into the back woods to his favorite fishing hole. Dennis also hunts for a legendary huge ``old brown'' living in a dark, still pool of the Boardman. He never catches the fish, but, as he notes, ``catching a trout like that isn't the point. The point, of course, is believing that he's there.'' Smooth, with a gently impressionistic touch--like easy- listening radio for anglers. (Line illustrations--some seen) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (January 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312141270
• ISBN-13: 978-0312141271
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #111,512 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Place on the Water: An Angler's Reflections on Home., February 17, 2000

By 

K. Elliott (Fremont) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Place on the Water: An Angler's Reflections on Home (Paperback)

This is the first book by Jerry Dennis that I have read, and I love it! I grew up in Michigan and have fished some of the same places mentioned in the book. He shares some very fasinating childhood tales. I couldn't put it down until I had read it from cover to cover. Enjoy!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine read..., January 14, 2000

By 

D. Kolton (The Great Northwest) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Place on the Water: An Angler's Reflections on Home (Paperback)

Jerry weaves a number of tales from his boyhood through life with fine dexterity and aptitude towards the human experience. The short story of Christmas and the death of his friends father was especially touching. You won't be diappointed.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Place on the Water, December 23, 2007

By 

L. A. Trochlil (Rhinelander, WI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Place on the Water: An Angler's Reflections on Home (Paperback)

A Place on the Water: An Angler's Reflections on Home
My first review and this book deserves it. "A Place on the Water" belongs on the shelf of every outdoorsman, especially if you have fished the Midwest. Fully captures the joys of youth, family, friends, and the outdoors. The best of short story, outdoor writing.