cover image A Wedding Gift: And Other Angling Stories

A Wedding Gift: And Other Angling Stories

John Taintor Foote. Lyons Press, $18.95 (132pp) ISBN 978-1-55821-163-6

Timothy Foote, an editor at Smithsonian magazine, has packaged three of his late father's fly-fishing tales from the '20s and '30s, all featuring the diehard fisherman George Baldwin Potter and his wife, Isabelle, 20 years George's junior. Isabelle's interests do not include fishing, and George's angling passion fuels some marital spats, here recorded by an urbane first-person narrator. In the title piece, for example, 40-year-old George takes Isabelle on a honeymoon cum fishing trip, and the results are cozily catastrophic. Foote pere, a playwright and screenwriter, has undeniable charm, but he is bound by the conventions of his time--and made to seem quainter still by Foote fils's fond prefaces. The latter adds his own story, about the son of the Potters, recounted by a fellow who is the son of the previous narrator. Devoted anglers may relish the copious fishing details and those who think filial piety a literary virtue will embrace this slender book; most others will want fresher bait. (Apr.)