A fishing book with four million copies sold and you have probably never heard of it. These sales numbers likely put the book in the same pond as Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. The book earned its author rock star status, launching a career as a trendsetter, literary influencer and social commentator.
Good Reads: Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan
A book titled Trout Fishing in America promises insider knowledge on locating fish, tactics and rigging secrets. According to the title, the book should be a meditation on the value of trout fishing to the country.
As the saying goes: don’t judge a book by its cover.
An Experimental Bestseller
Trout Fishing in America was a phenomenon when it hit booksellers in 1967. The title climbed the bestseller list during a little slice of cultural history between early beatniks like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg and later hippie gurus Timothy Leary and Tom Wolfe.
People call Trout Fishing in America a novel. The genre doesn’t fit if you insist a novel must have a coherent storyline, a central character and a plot.
Even by today’s standards, Trout Fishing in America is really out there. The first chapter, for example, is a detailed discussion about the layout of the book’s cover.
But fishing is in the book. Each chapter has a reference to trout fishing. The author Richard Brautigan was an accomplished fly fisher who waded with notable fly fishing authors, such as Thomas McGuane.
Brautigan’s mind-bender is repeatedly inserting the phrase “trout fishing in America” throughout the book. Sometimes trout fishing in America is an activity, a character, a location or a punchline to a dumb joke. What is going on?
Surreal, but Not Pointless
Trout Fishing in America is certainly surreal and influenced by drug culture. Even though the book is completely counterculture, it is also anchored in fishing and the beauty of the natural world. Despite being buried in crazy anecdotes and meandering storylines that never intersect, Trout Fishing in America is about trout fishing in America.
Today, the book remains relevant as the leading edge of the environmental movement. Using Trout Fishing in America as a stand-in for the shrinking American wilderness, the rise of consumerism and migration to the suburbs, this classic helped set the stage for environmental issues that followed.
Trout Fishing in America was published long before kayak fishing became a sport. But some of the writing is poignant today. For example, in one chapter the narrator visits a junkyard and finds a used trout stream for sale.
“We’re selling it by the foot length. You can buy as little as you want or you can buy all we’ve got left.”
The junkyard operator tells the narrator, “We’re selling it by the foot length. You can buy as little as you want or you can buy all we’ve got left.” Fish and insects were included, birds and wildlife cost extra. The waterfalls were stored separately in the plumbing department. Brautigan seems to predict the future of access to fishing water is sold, closed and developed.
Trout Fishing in America
When I view this book through the rearview mirror, I realize the random stories and quirky tongue-in-cheek narration has a serious meaning.
An activity as innocent and simple as trout fishing is important as a warning of what is at stake. Outsiders see fishing as whimsical and unimportant. But anglers like Brautigan have a unique angle to see what is on the horizon for all people who love the outdoors.
When he’s not teaching outdoor education at Algonquin College, Jeff Jackson spends his time guiding, fly fishing, building mountain bike trails and conducting risk management research.
“We’re selling it by the foot length…fish and insects included.” —Richard Brautigan | Feature photo: Barry Beck
