THE LONGEST SILENCE

McGuane uses stories from a lifetime of fly fishing to touch on many subjects, but mostly the arcana of fishing itself. Grover Gardner renders complex passages with care, using his considerable talents to vary his delivery. But no one could make some of these technical disquisitions interesting to a non-fisherman. McGuane is an intellectual and lyrical writer, but also a rancher raised in Montana. One suspects he does not sound like Gardner, whose voice is dry, precise, at times nearly prissily so, and who seems to have a Northeastern accent. The book is fine, if only for fishing aficionados. Gardner is fine. But the two are not a match. W.M. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/ SEP 06]