
Purchase
Fatherhood, Fly-fishing, and a River Journey Through the Heart of Alaska
St. Martin's Press
September 2007
On Sale: September 18, 2007
304 pages ISBN: 0312371519 EAN: 9780312371517 Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction Memoir
While father and son fishing trips can be the stuff of American legend, they can also turn out to be the stuff of anger, love and self-discovery. In his memoir of a fishing trip through the Alaskan wilderness, Lou Ureneck brings to life the struggle to reclaim the trust of his teenage son, Adam, following his divorce. Told against the backdrop of the Alaskan wilds, Backcast is the remembrance of a fishing trip that carried a father and son from the mountains of Alaska to the Bering Sea. Along the way, nature transforms from friend into foe, and their struggles are played out against the poignant emotional battle raging between the two as they descend the river headed toward confrontation. On their journey, the two encounter natureβs dangers β bears, violent river currents and ruthless, punishing weather β as well as the hurts that exist between them, the reasons for divorce, the absence of a father and the withheld love of a son. Dipping his hand into the river of his own life, Ureneck recounts his own fatherless childhood, the influence of his motherβs boyfriend who helped him learn to fish, and the realization that he himself had done the one thing he always promised himself he would not do: He ended his marriage in divorce. Part adventure story, part reconciliation with lifeβs unexpected turns, and part commentary on the healing power of nature, βBackcastβ explores the world of a man confronted by the hard choices divorce can bring to create a moving meditation on fatherhood.
 Media BuzzWeekend Edition Saturday - December 1, 2007
|