I am haunted by waters
And do my best to take advice from friends
A friend and loyal reader wrote me the other day.
“The art of writing lay in thrift.”
We were childhood friends and have also become fishing buddies over the years.
This quote is from Robert Redford’s narration in 1992’s A River Runs Through It, ostensibly a movie about fly fishing, which we both love.
He was concerned that I may not be as economical with my prose as I could or should be.
Correctamundo.
I don’t waste much in the way of words, but I don’t always keep it as short as readers—or myself—would like.
I had to agree with my friend who then forwarded on a clip from the movie.
“Half as long,” says Rev. Maclean as young Norman brings him an essay to grade. When Norman brings back an edited version of his work, the reverend says, “Again. Half as long.”
Eventually, the reverend was satisfied.
It is good instruction, whether one is a grade-schooler or a grizzled adult.
The movie is based on Norman Maclean’s semi-autobiographical novella by the same name. Much of the picture is like the book, but the real-life Macleans were much different as well.
The biggest shocker to me: Norman and Paul had 5 sisters.
Norman (1924) and Paul (1928) were both graduates of Dartmouth University. Paul did leave Montana in real life.
According to O. Alan Weltzein,
“In fact, Paul Maclean followed Norman to Dartmouth and, after his own graduation and several years of working for Montana newspapers, to Chicago, in hopes of landing a job on a big-city daily.”
Paul did indeed work at a Helena newspaper, but at the time of his—still unsolved—murder, the brothers were both living in Chicago. Paul was a reporter.
Norman was at the University of Chicago, where he’d earn a Ph.D. in 1940 and continue to work as a professor of English until his retirement in 1973.
In the Introduction to The Norman Maclean Reader, the editor Weltzein writes:
“Both the novella and the movie obscure Paul’s actual history. In the movie’s adaptation, when Norman goes east, Paul stays behind in Montana, as though incapable of leaving the great trout rivers of home.”
While I may have been better off making other career and life choices in my twenties and perhaps remaining on the east coast, the trout rivers of the West also beckoned me back home like the character of Paul.
I kind of wish Redford and Maclean hadn’t helped to make me so “dreamy” in those days.
Could it have been Maclean’s expert instruction at Dartmouth in those days that helped him write so well and spellbind us about the joys, nay, necessities of fly fishing?
“[Robert Frost] had a lot of influence on me,” said Norman. “He was an occasional teacher at Dartmouth when I was there, so I had the privilege of being in classes that he taught. I liked him even before I went to Dartmouth. He talked straight to you, and often poetry was there, or something close to it.”
Maybe not.
Norman recounts an anecdote from his wife, Jessie. “She would say, ‘Norman, I knew you when you were young and you were a goddamned mess.’”
Like many of us.
There is more on the family Maclean in the form of Norman and Jessie’s son, John, who recently published a book called Home Waters: A Chronicle of Family and a River. I just found out about it today, but it is now in my queue.
From the publisher:
“Home Waters is a portrait 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. Here are the true stories behind the beloved characters fictionalized in A River Runs through It, including the Reverend Maclean, the patriarch who introduced the family to fishing; Norman, who balanced a life divided between literature and the tug of the rugged West; and tragic yet luminous Paul (played by Brad Pitt in Robert Redford’s film adaptation), whose mysterious death has haunted the family and led John to investigate his uncle’s murder and reveal new details in these pages.”
The original Maclean book and the movie were a huge part of my life about 20-25 years ago. I’ve watched the film dozens of times and have read the book several times over. The articles and criticism I’ve consumed about both the book and the movie are also plentiful.
I love fly fishing as the brothers Maclean did. Mostly self-taught, however.
I devoted most of my twenties entirely to the sport. “Professional fly fisherman,” as the young Paul wanted to be in the movie.
However, I could never brook the idea of becoming a professor like Norman, but I wanted to write like both brothers could. Still a long way to go on that front.
First thing I need to do is start excising more words.
With all that’s going on in the “news” these days, I don’t know where this world is going, but in order to maintain some semblance of sanity, we need more trout fishing and good stories.
The annals of the Maclean family are a good place to start.
https://olearyreview.com/maclean/
Reverend Maclean kept it in perspective after a day’s fishing with his two sons.
“I’d say the Lord has blessed us all today. It’s just that he’s been particularly good to me.”
Likewise, good Reverend.
Brian O’Leary