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To be loved by a woman and a woman who loves him and fishing was the most important thing in Gus's life. The River Why by David James Duncan is an extremely remarkable story about a man named Augustine Orviston, short for Gus. Gus had a dream that all he wanted was to fish. But something was still missing in his life that he would have never known if he had not found it, love. This novel has a succeeding ending with passion, moral and love. So on the day of his high school graduation, Gus moved to the Northwest, right out of Portland Oregon on the Tamanawis River in a small secluded cabin with no way of the outside world ever contacting him.
But she is afraid and disappears and left his heart broken. He grew up in the city with his fishing possessed family, ma, H20 and his (strange non-fisher) younger brother, Bill Bob. Therefore he meets a beautiful woman named Eddy, who fishes day and night. He then finds that fishing is not the only way to full fill his life. Gus becomes lonely, so he ventures out, he meets people that turn into friends, such as Titus, Nick, Emma, Ernie, and others. With no way of ever finding her.
The love of people in his life, the love of the water, and most of all the love of fishing.
I am happy I stumbled upon this book at a bookstore. Duncan engrosses the reader with his words, his meditation on fishing and asking some tough questions as for our protagonist Gus, Why am I here. As a fellow fisherman, a hobby of mine, I have read a river runs through it, seen the movie and love both.I really enjoyed this book, this book is for all ages, it's a coming of age story of sorts, and does deal with fishing. It's funny, sad, heart warming, eye opening, just a down right good read. What is it all about. This is truly a wonderful read. I ordered Duncan's Brothers K, which I will be reading soon.
He is a unique and gifted storyteller and his prose is moving and witty. Compared to many other modern writers, Duncan can seem very wordy.
For Gus there has never been anything except fishing. David James Duncan's moving coming and hilarious coming-of-age story follows fishing prodigy Gus Orviston.
The book is about growing up, it's about looking for meaning and love and purpose. But like many of us, Gus is forced to face that even his most beloved hobby and pastime doesn't always make him happy or fulfilled.
Gus must learn how to think, how to ask the question "why."Don't let the centrality of fishing scare you away from this book, as others have noted a knowledge or appreciation of fishing is not at all necessary to appreciate this book. But once you get used to it, it really does add to the humor.
Gus learns that there is more to life than fishing. Whether you're wanting a little light reading or looking for a way to cheer up after a bad night, The River Why is the book for you. At times I found his style to be choppy or repetitive, but I didn't think it detracted from the actual storyline, if anything it enhanced it. There are many unforgettable quotes in this book, some that I've even used in theological essays. Get ready to be hooked, and taken to a new world of insight, delight, fascination, and spirituality. He is extremely creative with his word usage and sentence structure.
It's an exciting, memorable, tale that you can read and reread. Not only is it full of humorous stories and tales, but it wrestles with some of the toughest questions of in our world, "What is the meaning of life." "Who are we." "WHY." David Duncan is a very unique writer and knows how to captivate his audience using witty conversations between characters and dramatic story telling. The book contains Gus going through deeply religious and spiritual moments, as well as philosophizing with his younger brother Bill-Bob.This book is a MUST read. His story follows the life of the dynamic character, Gus, and his absolute love of fishing. I'm not a fisherman by any means, but I was still able to relate my life to this book. I would highly recommend it to all of my friends.
Not only does it get you laughing out loud, it gets you thinking hard about your life.
I found myself laughing out loud a lot while I read this book, which I suppose can be either good or bad depending on where you are.Anyway, I believe that both fisherman and those who would rather do just about anything except fish (i.e. It's a story about growing up---about coming to realize things you couldn't understand in your youth.
I would spend the next week reading about flyfishing. I've never even been flyfishing.
When I first opened the book to read it for a course I'm taking and saw the word "fish" eight times on the opening page, my immediate reaction was to groan in disgust. Because although this book seems to revolve around fishing, really, it has very little to do with fishing.
My fishing experiences consist of my using my beginner's pole off a boat dock, and the one time at Diamond Lake where I used a real pole, and sat in the sweltering heat for hours with bugs smushing themselves against me. I never even caught a fish.But by the end of the first chapter, I was hooked.
Gus Orviston is a representation for every young person growing up, to some extent, even though most of our worlds don't revolve around fishing.If you're not into thinking about the meaning of life, or the journey into adulthood, read The River Why because it's FUNNY. myself) can find an appreciation for this book.
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