BOOKMARK
Seductive lure of fly fishing a soliloquy on life
"Rivers of Shadow, Rivers of Sun: A Fly-Fisher's European Journal" by Norm Zeigler; Countrysport Press, hardback, $22.95
By John Windrow
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Norm Zeigler shows this to beautiful effect in his first book, which is a travel journal, memoir and philosophical treatment of what nature and time mean to us, as well as a splendid guide to the trout waters of Europe.
Zeigler was the outdoor writer for European Stars and Stripes, the GI newspaper in Germany, during the 1990s. "Rivers of Shadow, Rivers of Sun" is a collection of 14 vig-nettes of fishing trips in Germany, Spain, Poland, Denmark, Scotland, Czechoslovakia and other spots where the snow-fed blue and white brooks run through forests and fields, past castles and hamlets.
Fishing in Europe appears to be a very civilized business. Zeigler releases nearly all the fish he hooks, and often a wine kiosk seems to be within walking distance of the happy stream.
But as in Hemingway's fish stories or Turgenev's hunting tales, the pursuit of the game is tangential in Zeigler's stories, which are about how nature is never spent, how time is ever slipping away from us, how we can never put our foot in the same river twice. His writing captures the beauty of the now, the clarity of the present moment, how now is the best of all possible worlds.
In one such passage, he writes: "I wanted to stretch out this day until it snapped."
And, of course, our days are snapped, by time itself, which never has to cheat to win; by bad luck, by affairs of the heart, by all the frailties that the flesh is heir to.
Zeigler's descriptive powers, storyteller's art and literary background make the book an excellent read, even for someone who never wets a line. But if you are of the fisherman's bent, Zeigler's expertise as a fly fisherman gives these stories a ringing authenticity.
And it's just in time for trout season on Kaua'i.
John Windrow is an Advertiser city editor. He knew Norm Zeigler when the two worked together at Stars and Stripes.
