Description:
James Dodson, author of the father-son golfing memoir Final Rounds, took his 7-year-old daughter, Maggie, on a cross-country camping and fishing trip soon after he and his wife announced their plans for an amicable divorce. The six-week interlude of father-daughter roaming creates a story that limns both the scenic vistas of the American West and the interior landscape of the heart. As the two drive and fish and walk their old dog, Amos, Maggie asks her father difficult questions, and Dodson, between explaining heaven and the history of the West, tries to help her with the answers. He is a world-class know-it-all, quoting Plato and Emerson and Oscar Wilde as often as he sets up his daughter's fly rod. That said, he's also a long-time journalist, and his clear, nimble prose keeps this travel story humming along: "Old Blue cooled down and Amos hung his big head out the window to let the rushing wind flap his jowls," writes Dodson of one evening's drive. "Maggie sang along with Trisha Yearwood, a lovely torch song about somebody aching to hit the road after a love affair gone wrong, anxious to get out from under a rain cloud and find a way to live again ... the sound of my fishergirl's sweet voice made my anxiety begin to lift like Portland fog." --Maria Dolan
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