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Genealogy Book Store > Genealogy books beginning with B
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Backcast: Fatherhood, Fly-fishing, and a River Journey Through the Heart of Alaska |
Author: Lou Ureneck
Published: 2007-09-18 |
List price: $24.95
Our price: $16.47
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As of: January 06th, 2009 04:47:18 AM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Not what I expected
I expected a book recounting about re-bonding on a fishing trip between a father and son, each of whom had distanced themselves from the other. Instead, it is partly about a poorly planned fishing trip, and mostly about the authors lousy childhood and his painful divorce. Nether of these seems to lend much to the rest of the book, which could not have been covered in a short chapter. Even the trip itself is quite odd, with the son being as much of a jerk as he thinks his father is. It ends with no real clue as to whether this trip was even a success from a bonding and mending standpoint.
I've read probably 100 fishing books, and I'd rate this in the bottom 20%, and it is not written as it is advertised.At best, this is a library read....don't fork over any cash.
 Good book, though not all about fishing and Alaska
I liked this book. I heard Lou on NPR and decided his book sounded interesting enough to read. While I was drawn to it for its tales of rafting in Alaska, what I found most interesting were his tales of growing up. His father abandoned the family when he was 7 and his mom moved he and his brother around to many different houses and apartments. Many of his anecdotes made me relect on situations in my own past. Once, another kid's dad spanked him for some minor infraction. When he told his mom, a hot-tempered person, she decided to do nothing, since she rented her shop from the man. This made me furious. The book also made me sad as he described the breakup of his marriage and his strained relations with his grown son. The Alaska adventure is enjoyable too, though it seems in retrospect to take up only a fraction of the book.
A Fishing Tale & more.
A most enjoyable read. When first picking it up I thought I was going to be exposed to a boys own adventure tale of a floating & fishing trip in remote Alaska. The book certainly delivers this but even moreso it descibes the complexity of family relationships as seen through Lou's own experiences as a son and father.
As an aussie it provided me with some insight to what it was like growing up in middle america in the 50's and 60's. I found Lou's accounts of his own childhood and his interpretation of relationships with his mother, & father figures, as rewarding as the descriptions of he & his son hooking monster sock-eye salmon.
Great Story of Life
I truly enjoyed this book, since it was real, involved father son relationships, and included fishing in Alaska. As a father of 4 sons, I related reasonably well to the struggles the father and son encountered during this trip. I have been to Alaska on a similar trip with both friends and a son and the descriptions of the float and wildlife were very accurate. I thought the hostility of the son toward his father, who was the leader of the trip, cook, fishing guide, fly tier and financier was a little overdone. Having never been through a divorce, maybe I don't relate to this part of the relationship. The father did more than his share to bridge the gap with what appeared to be little or no effort or reciprocity by the son. They had spent many hours together before the trip, so this seemed a little over done.
 Father and Son Unfurled
The author invites you to come along on a rafting / fly fishing trip down Alaska's Kanektok River. There's excitement in the air in the opening chapter as the author and his teenage son hop planes from Philly to Anchorage then to Dillingham and finally dropped by bush-plane into the Alaskan wilderness - ON THEIR OWN. To dial up the adventure meter here, the East coast duo decides to cover the 100 plus mile float by themselves. Add to that a shoe-string budget for equipment and a first time ever trip to the wilds of Alaska, and well, I sensed it would be interesting.
And yes, these guys experience the thrills and dangers of the untamed Alaskan wilderness first-hand. But the greater adventure Lou Ureneck has in mind for us in Backcast isn't catching wild silver salmon on a fly-rod, but the adventure of growing up, becoming a man, and the demands of being a good father.
Backcast alternates settings between Alaskan wilderness and Ureneck's various homes which range from South Jersey up north to Maine. At least a third to a half of the book tells Ureneck's life story. How he grew up. The importance he places on fishing as an escape from an unstable family life and as a common bond with his step-father. And lastly, living through the stress and anguish of a crumbling marriage.
Ureneck vows to not repeat the mistakes of his natural father and his step-father. As the story closes, we are presented with a father who has made tough choices but refuses to throw in the towel on his son. The struggle here to maintain the love and respect of his college-bound son, is no less in scope to what it takes to survive the raw, Alaskan wilderness. At the end of Backcast, I'm left feeling that his father is certainly up to the task.
Ureneck delivers a well-told, and extremely personal story of a man's journey to confront a childhood filled with temporary homes and temporary father figures. The struggle against the Alaskan elements sometimes pale in comparison.
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