A personal account of a life of sporting adventure from the Florida Keys to the plains of Montana, to the streams of Michigan.
December 9th, 2020: An Outside Chance by Thomas McGuane, Houghton Mifflin
If the mark of truly great non-fiction is the ability to engross you in subject matter you aren’t inherently interested in, An Outside Chance is proof that rare as it might be, that ability does exist. And nobody, in my opinion, does it like McGuane. Nobody. A number of stories in this book are also in the McGuane book I previously reviewed, and of course, the fishing subject matter rings home for me. But it’s the stories about things I care about not one bit (motocross and horses) and the ones I care about to a slightly lesser degree than fishing (hunting and bird dogs) that really prove out. This book contains what is, in my opinion, probably the finest explanation and depiction of why we hunt in “The Heart Of The Game,” an essay every hunter should give to the non-hunters in his or her life for insight. It also has one of my favorite story titles of all time in “Roping, From A to B.” All told with McGuane’s trademark sharp, clean prose, humility, and humor. This is an amazing collection of work.
Dylan Tomine is a Patagonia Ambassador, author, conservation advocate, steelhead bum, recovering sink tip addict and dad…not necessarily in that order.
