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A review by steelcitygator
The Founding Fish by John McPhee
3.0
A good read on the Shad in many facets. From their habits to their hit rate to their anatomy (and the anatomy of fish from the Gulf of Mexico too). It's part fishing memoir, part science book, part history book, it's eclectic if nothing else. There's even technically a cookbook chapter that finishes the work.
The history parts were interesting and insightful though if you come to the book looking for mostly that based on the title and don't connect with the other parts you'll leave disappointed. The fishing memoir bits are very good, I've admittedly not read many hunting or fishing memoirs at this point but I hope the others on my TBR are like this.
If I had to do a negative it would be two points. Firstly, sometimes it feels it struggles to hold a cohesive thread between and even in chapters. Secondly, the last official chapter feels preachy as hell. A bit of bad taste in the mouth preachy rather than the feel something growing inside you preachy.
But that's minor gripes, I highly recommend this work if for it's interesting takes on North American fishing culture and sport and it's interesting and rare historical look if nothing else.
The history parts were interesting and insightful though if you come to the book looking for mostly that based on the title and don't connect with the other parts you'll leave disappointed. The fishing memoir bits are very good, I've admittedly not read many hunting or fishing memoirs at this point but I hope the others on my TBR are like this.
If I had to do a negative it would be two points. Firstly, sometimes it feels it struggles to hold a cohesive thread between and even in chapters. Secondly, the last official chapter feels preachy as hell. A bit of bad taste in the mouth preachy rather than the feel something growing inside you preachy.
But that's minor gripes, I highly recommend this work if for it's interesting takes on North American fishing culture and sport and it's interesting and rare historical look if nothing else.