Thomas McGuane's "Twenty-Fish Days" from Sports Afield to the 1997 Best American Essays describes an ideal fishing trip. Painting every paragraph as a memorable, picturesque pause in time, McGuane gives an alluring account of his pastime. I wish he gave more.
I found nothing about this piece to be memorable. The was uneventful and boring. His style of writing elicits no feelings but only a narrative, constrained by his own predictability.
I wonder how this piece got into this book, and even so, into Sports Afield. It is a splendid account of fishing, but does Sports Afield really want another piece that gives this pastime no dimensions?
I will read this piece again and am hoping, if not expect, that it will captivate me unlike my first time.
