The River Why, on the other hand, is mostly about fly fishing. Although it also develops some larger themes, because David James Duncan is a very good writer. I'd like to think that book is a classic of American literature too, but I'm too biased in favor of the subject matter to really know. Someone else with more objectivity would have to say. I'm not sure if the book would hold non-anglers long enough to settle into its artistry and craft. Which is considerable, imo. I think that Duncan's like Ken Kesey, a North American Magical Realist.
But like I said, I'm biased. The book is good enough to make me want to read Duncan's non-fishing lit, like his book The Brothers K. I've been meaning to find a copy of that for some time.
I highly recommend D J Duncan's books of essays, River Teeth and My Story As Told By Water. Plenty of material in there about fly fishing. And conservation, and spiritual/metaphysical/religious meditations, and etc. His favored themes.
As for the movie The River Why, I haven't seen it. Not sure that I want to. The book has always seemed as if it would be easy to ruin if it were made into a movie, and that seems to be the prevailing opinion on what happened.
There's a funny thing about that book- it seems to me that it's the closest thing to "chick lit" that I've ever read. Ultimate fantasy for any guy fly fisherman- at least those of us into girls: wading up an idyllic trout stream, you round the bend and find a gorgeous sky-clad water nymph sitting in a tree, holding a fishing rod. Sincerely liking the same things you like, not just humoring you. Including, as it happens, liking you....falling in love, getting married, going off for a raging honeymoon and presumably Living Happily Ever After.
You can imagine how easily that literary magic trick- which Duncan handles so deftly in his writing- could be turned into a travesty by being made into a film. Although it would also be impossible to leave that part out and still have any kind of a movie.
