THE RIVER WHY

Dick Hill moves from yokel to philosopher with the agility of the steelhead, which features so prominently in Duncan’s whopper of a fish story. In narrating Gus Orviston’s tale of growing up in a fishing-obsessed family, Hill captures “Ma’s cowgirl crudity” and her family’s “overcooked Eastern Oregon drawl” as perfectly as he does the British ways of Gus’s father. At age 19 Orviston sets out on a journey--leaving home for a cabin on an Oregon River--where he finds love, fish, and social responsibility. Fishermen may find too much philosophy and philosophers too many fish tales, but Hill balances both with the skill of one who has told many tall tales. D.P.D. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 06]