When he hooks it at last, decades of longing promise to be fulfilled, inspiring John, reporter and author, to finally write the story he was born to tell.Ī book that will resonate with everyone who feels deeply rooted to a place, Home Watersis chronicle of a family who claimed a river, from one generation to the next, of how this family came of age in the 20th century and later as they scattered across the country, faced tragedy and success, yet were always drawn back to the waters that bound them together. Now himself past the age that his father published his bestselling novella, Maclean returns annually to the simple family cabin that his grandfather built by hand, still in search of the fish of a lifetime. Maclean’s remarkable memoir of his family’s century-long love affair with Montana’s majestic Blackfoot River, which his father, Norman Maclean, made legendary. One slow beat, set the hook … in those first seconds I felt a connection to a fish of great size and power. A greenish speckled back and a flash of scarlet on silver along its side marked it as a rainbow. “The trout completed its curve in an undulating, revelatory sequence. Maclean’s meditation on fly fishing and life along Montana’s Blackfoot River, where four generations of Macleans have fished, bonded, and drawn timeless lessons from its storied waters.

In the spirit of his father’s beloved classic A River Runs Through It comes a gorgeous chronicle of a family and the land they call home: Home Waters is John N.

His storytelling - from the fishing with his dad to the life and death of his Uncle Paul - is reliable, elegant and charming.Īfter a 30-year career as a journalist, mostly as a correspondent for the Chicago Tribune in D.C., the younger Maclean took to writing well-received nonfiction about wildfires in the American West. Maclean, is also an author, and his latest book, “Home Waters,” is a lyrical companion to his father’s classic, chronicling their family’s history and bond with Montana’s Blackfoot River. Only my wife’s good sense kept his surname from higher billing on the boy’s birth certificate. To me, Norman Maclean’s book, more poetry than narrative, is a triumph of American literature. We named him after the author whose novella about fly-fishing and Montana transformed both.

If you’re expecting an unbiased take on anything to do with “A River Runs Through It,” I should disclose that my son’s middle name is “Maclean.” This is not some cute happenstance.

Author of a river runs through it