A Good Life Wasted: or Twenty Years as a Fishing Guide

Rating:
Summary: A Good Life Wasted writing a fabulous book
Review: In A Good Life Wasted the author Dave Ames recounts his last twenty years as a fishing guide in the trout fishing capital of the universe, Montana. It is every true fly fisherman's dream to be reincarnated as a Montana fly fishing guide. As Ames aptly puts it in the opening line of the book, "With all my fingers and all my splayed toes I still can't count the number of millionaires who have wished out loud that they could be me."
They wouldn't wish it if they read on as Ames describes living in a rat infested trailer, bouncing checks and using a log in the great outdoors as a temporary outhouse until he can buy a toilet.
Ames' career begins as a hydrologist for the federal government who one day goes "postal" by punching a clock - literally. He bluffs his way into a job as a fishing guide working for a local Blackfoot Native American known affectionately as Kingfish. He plods his was through his early guiding days and his life becomes entangled in a contradictory world of haves and have nots.
The numerous stories Ames recounts meld seamlessly with each other and offer more lessons on life's moral and religious significance than on fishing.
Most books lose steam after the first couple of chapters - not this one. It becomes more intriguing and gets better as it goes. It is truly a page turner. The surest sign of a great book for me is when I am done do I tell myself I want more. The answer here is a resounding yes!
So, Mr. Ames, during the long Montana winters get cracking and put pen to pad and finger to keyboard and allow us to be temporarily reincarnated as you.