From Publishers Weekly (as taken from the Amazon.com site)
Talking fish, a chain letter and a river electroshock team highlight this diverse, steady-handed group of 25 stories about women and fly-fishing. The Montana and Wyoming women of Burton's (Reading the Water) stories are mature, independent and smooth at landing tough trout and redfish. They are river guides, divorc es, aging housewives and philosophical matriarchs trying to get away from phones, faxes, computers and, sometimes, their brawny, absentminded men. At least one female hero has worked so diligently at becoming one of the guys, she "rowed hard, fished harder, bar-hopped, and back slapped [her] way right out of the female race." Hiding in the rippling river shadows of this feminist, fishery politic is "The Compleat Adventures of Brooke E. Trout," a crisp, knee-slapping masterwork of postmodern fiction where Burton does to outdoorsman literature what literary blacktivist Ishmael Reed did to the modern western. A nondrinking, nonsmoking, non-man chasing, sexy woman, the learned Brooke is at home on the rivers of Montana tying flies named after country music celebrities, like Johnny Cast, Shank Williams and Minnow Pearl (the latter screams "Howdee!" when turned on by remote control). In "Casting Blind," a woman losing her sight learns to fish by ear. In "The Facts," the gritty blue-collar voice of a commercial fisherman reveals the ugly side of waterway abuses, while "A Guide's Advice" ponders why a man might choose fishing over the love of a beautiful, intelligent woman. Burton is a patient guide along the intermittently calm and turbulent waters of fishing and relationships, often reeling in surprises, and making her sprightly tales of adventuresome women appealing to both sexes, especially to fans of Pam Houston. (Oct.)
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