Early Love and Brook Trout (reviewed)

Early Love and Brook Trout
James Prosek
The Lyons Press
$24.95, 160 pages, hardcover
ISBN 1-58574-039-x

At the risk of sounding like the "geezer" I’ve become and despite the nice things people much smarter than I -- Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, Thomas McGuane, and James R. Babb among them -- say about it on the book’s jacket, Early Love and Brook Trout left me feeling luke-warm at best. Possibly because I thought it would even before I read it. "What business does a twenty-something year old have writing about early love (Hell! He’s still living it.) and brook trout fishing (He’s been doing it since he was twelve, but he was in his early 20’s when he wrote this for Pete’s sake.)?" When I mentioned these reservations to my wife, she suggested that I just might be slightly put off by his youth and his early success.

Well, now I’ve read the book, and I’m happy to report that my predispositions -- geezerly and envious as they might have been -- were for the most part warranted. The book with its generous reproduction of the author’s watercolors suffers not from a lack of talent or style -- Mr. Prosek has worlds of both -- but from a lack of experience and story. During the period in which he did the loving and fishing that are the background for this book, the author attained puberty, painted quite successfully, moved from middle through high school, went to and graduated from college, wrote two or three books, played the guitar, and traveled through North and South America. Not much time for living the kinds of angling stories or developing insights for the reflective essays I am given to reading.

The book is filled with snippets -- short impressionistic pieces; some are stories; some, anecdotes; some, recollections, while some others are reflections or ideas that might become stories. Most of the pieces are well written. Prosek’s voice is distinct, pleasant, and his style promises -- for me -- more fulfilling reading as he matures.

Then there is the art. I like his fish.RWOL

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