Illuminated by Water

Starred review from April 11, 2022
Writer and singer Tallack (Sixty Degrees North) dives into his decades of fly-fishing in this incandescent work about the restorative power of nature. “For me, the desire to catch fish is the opposite of simple,” Tallack writes, “and at its root is not an eagerness to kill or to capture at all... a quite different instinct: an intense, focused curiosity.” Employing that intense curiosity here, he blends his personal history with a cultural investigation of fly-fishing, and, more specifically, its ability to lure people in. As he wades from 1980s East Sussex, where his “fixation” with fishing began, to the trout-filled waters he fished until his thirties in Shetland, he offers philosophical musings on the “flow state” induced by angling—a “combination of repetitive, purposeful movement... and a focused, optimistic mindset” that’s been known to reduce depression—and reminisces in lyrical prose on his many voyages, including trips to the River Devon’s “rushing waterfalls and... wide, languorous stretches.” Later chapters evoke the ambient threat of climate change and industrial pollution, noting, among other things, how Britain’s once-fecund chalk streams are being “choked life” due to massive amounts of untreated sewage discharged from local water companies. Never didactic or sentimental, his prose winds its way through inner and outer terrains, rendering sparkling meditations at every turn. This casts the life aquatic in a wondrous light.

April 1, 2022
A lyrical look at fly-fishing. Even for those who have never picked up a fishing rod, this poetic book has a lot to say about the process of finding the things that are truly important. Tallack, a Glasgow-based writer and musician, has been an enthusiastic angler since childhood. The author alternates between his ruminations about fishing and his experiences of visiting streams and lakes around the world, from Scotland to Canada to New Zealand. He provides a history of fly-tying and the ethics of fishing, and he recounts his hopes that angling will eventually become less Anglo-Saxon and less male. The quiet joy of it, he writes, should be open to everyone. Tallack's particular interest is trout, but he is willing to pursue salmon and carp if the need arises. These days, the author is more likely to catch and release his quarry rather than kill and eat it. Many fishing clubs encourage this approach to ensure stocks remain healthy, and a few demand it. Because most of the fish caught by recreational anglers won't be eaten, some may wonder why the sport is so important to those who participate. Of course, many of the best fishing spots are in places of great natural beauty, and there is a sense of getting back to a primal, uncluttered sensibility. But that is not the whole story, notes Tallack. It is not just about the scenery or patiently waiting for a bite. Paraphrasing art critic--and fisherman--Robert Hughes, Tallack writes that "pleasure [is] to be found not only in the achievement of something, but in the expectation of it....Submitting to a timescale...that is not your own, can free you from the need for patience altogether." The author explains all this in lucid, unhurried prose, and he can turn a good phrase. An engaging book that will make many readers head for the nearest stream to toss in a line.

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