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River Music: A Fly Fisher's Four Seasons Paperback – January 1, 2005

by James R. Babb (Author), Carl D. Clarke (Illustrator)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 39 ratings
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James Babb imbues his devastating wit, ornery perspective, and musical language within each of the ribald tales in River Music. This is exemplified in the “Prelude,” his opus about “the occasional laugh, the occasional thought, a bit about fly fishing and a bit about Life, and all of it underpinned by the music of rivers.” The pieces are arranged in a harmonious current that carries us through the seasons, and life itself.

He recounts a disastrous--and hilarious--spring canoeing trip with a friend in “The Darling Buds of May,” where the snow accumulated so quickly on their hats that they “looked like Conehead voyageurs from Remulak.” In “The Coriolis Effect,” Babb rhapsodizes about the sights, smells, and culture of what he considers to be the last great place on Earth, where pristine Chilean waters and a native way of life relieve him of an obsession about which direction the water flushes. And in “Little Jewels,” he weaves an exquisite, deeply humorous, and haunting nocturne with peccadillo accompaniment that considers the mating habits of trout and men, mortality, and a thirty-nine-year-long unrequited love. Babb is a maverick whose latest offering is a true departure from conventional essays on fly fishing, or on any subject, and will be relished by the growing circle of Babb fanatics everywhere.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    196 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Lyons Pr
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 2005
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1592287123
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1592287123
  8. See all details
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The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

James R. Babb imbues his devastating wit, ornery perspective, and musical language within each of the ribald tales in River Music. This is exemplified in the Prelude, his opus about the occasional laugh, the occasional thought, a bit about fly fishing and a bit about Life, and all of it underpinned by the music of rivers. The pieces are arranged in a harmonious current that carries us through the seasons, and life itself.
He recounts a disastrous and hilarious spring canoeing trip with a friend in The Darling Buds of May, where the snow accumulated so quickly on their hats that they looked like Conehead voyagers from Remulak. In The Coriolis Effect, Babb rhapsodizes about the sights, smells, and culture of what he considers to be the last great place on Earth, where pristine Chilean waters and a native way of life relieve him of an obsession about which direction the water flushes. And in Little Jewels, he weaves an exquisite, deeply humorous, and haunting nocturne with peccadillo accompaniment that considers the mating habits of trout and men, mortality, and a thirty-nine-year-long unrequited love. Babb is a maverick whose latest offering is a true departure from conventional essays on fly fishing, or on any subject, and will be relished by the growing circle of Babb fanatics everywhere.

About the Author

James R. Babb is the editor of Gray's Sporting Journal and author of Crosscurrents, which Library Journal hailed as "the best fly-fishing book" of 2001. He was born and grew up in East Tennessee, and has worked as a commercial lobster fisherman, a truck driver, a boatyard worker, a reporter, and a feature writer.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Lyons Pr (January 1, 2005)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 196 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1592287123
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1592287123
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 39 ratings

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James R. Babb

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
39 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Charles R. Anderson
5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece of Writing
Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2009
Verified Purchase
Babb is an exceptional writer who really hits a home run with this book. I have bought 2 more copies to give to my fishing buddy, who is a retired college enlish professor, and my oldest son, who has the same fly fishing passion that I do. If you like to read a well written and humorous account of some of his fishing experiences, this is the book. His writing is so good it could be about anything and you would enjoy reading his book. For those of us who fly fish, it was even better, since we had experienced some of the same feelings but don't know how to express them nearly as well as the Author. A don't miss book!!
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Andrew Schonbek
4.0 out of 5 stars Grandiloquent Piscatorial Musing
Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2011
Verified Purchase
There's a peculiar style of writing that often attaches itself to fly fishing narratives, why I'm not sure. This literary form revels in its own complexity, challenges the reader, and coaxes the English language to do things that seemingly never were intended. Ted Leeson is a workmanlike practitioner of this style; James Babb is its master.

What is it? I'll call it grandiloquent piscatorial musing.

Three key elements of this genre of fish book are the use of esoteric vocabulary, outrageous similes, and long and complex sentences. Let's take a look at each, with references from River Music.

Here's an example of off the beaten path vocab -

"And then I had a piece of tarte au sucre - sugar pie, a thrombotic Gaspesian concoction of eggs and cream and butter and caramelized brown sugar quivering lasciviously in a crisp buttery shell".

What does thrombotic mean? Grab that dictionary and look it up.

How about this for a simile that makes your hair stand on end?

"Then came a day when sun in the east floodlit the soggy black behinds of clouds fleeing toward the west - the weary remnants of the storm that after a week of hanging just off the coast had finally come ashore in the night howling like a Shop - Vac swallowing a cat, fire hosing the hotel with hard edged raw ocean, and sending coconuts and lawn chairs flying around like soccer balls".

Yikes! A Shop - Vac swallowing a cat!

And here is a typically long sentence - not a run on sentence, mind you, but a suitably long and complex one to make clear that we won't be impaling a worm on a hook below a red and white bobber any time soon:

"Still, an electric aura seemed to crackle around us, particularly on those days when the plaid-jacketed, white-belted old gent in the adjoining music store would sit down to fiddle with his Wurlitzer and we, partly as therapy for the customer-free tedium and the jerkily painful polkas, and partly as permission to almost innocently touch, broke into a pre-disco-crisis dance called The Bump - a rhythmic riot of colliding rumps and red-faced laughter that sent the clock spinning quickly toward quitting time".

Do you think you'll enjoy reading this stuff?

I did...
2 people found this helpful
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troutchaser
5.0 out of 5 stars Better than Expected
Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2010
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Honestly, I expected Babb's writing to go by the way of so many other fly fishing books . Maybe something on the 3-4 star scale, and a little dry to my tastes. I was pleasantly surprised. Babb is as witty as he is seasoned in the sport. He's friendly and unassuming. He caught me off guard and gave reason to smile in nearly every vignette. A good laugh wasn't out of the question.
I'll be picking up his other titles.
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jim
4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyed very much.
Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2013
Verified Purchase
A very entertaining book. I finished it in about three days. Mr. Babb seems like the kind of person I could fish with.
A lighthearted look into someone who enjoys the simple act of fishing and enjoying the places it takes place.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars James is like a continuation of John Gierach .
Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2020
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The way he tells the stories ,like being along side as he goes through his journeys .
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kenny
3.0 out of 5 stars River Music" A Fly-fisher's Four Seasons
Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2012
Verified Purchase
This being the second book by the author J.R. Babb which I have read, I was a bit disappointed in the contents. I can relate to the four seasons in the context of fly-fishing, but I felt that the author sometimes rambled about in writing about some of the episodes within the four seasons. Some episodes were memorable while most were not. I often look back on a book as being a memorable piece of reading when I can pick out portions of book and instantly remember what it was all about. In this book, it was hard for me to pick it back up and remember exactly what I had read and what was memorable about it.
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Dan Ganter
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read
Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2017
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Just landed from a business trip in Indianapolis and don't think I would have made it without reading this through the whole conference. Great work!
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Cici.Murphy
1.0 out of 5 stars The actual condition of the book should have been clearly stated..
Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2019
Verified Purchase
A former library book with the dust jacket glued on and library stamps and stickers all over does not fall under the description of "Condition: Used - Very Good - Crisp copy with a sturdy binding and light shelf ware". You would be hard pressed to find anyone who felt that this book falls under that condition description. The actual "condition" of the book should have been clearly stated. Bought as a gift, with no time to return... so embarrassing. Not cool at all.
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Top reviews from other countries

Outdoor Lover David
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read from an author closer to the East Coast.
Reviewed in Canada on September 28, 2017
Verified Purchase
Received as advertised ... excellent!
A great read from an author closer to the East Coast. We just don't seem to have as many published authors as the West Coast crew.
If we do I hope to find them :-).
Looking at Babb's other works since I enjoyed this one so much.
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