The Lone Angler

Matt Hartman is a freelance editor and cataloguer, running Hartman Cataloguing, Editing and Indexing Services.

This third journey to New Brunswick’s Miramichi Region follows The
Americans Are Coming (1989) and The Last Tasmanian (1991). While the
latter book differed from the former mostly in chronology, this third
novel in the sequence takes a giant leap forward in other ways. For the
first time, three of the main protagonists—Dryfly and Palidin Ramsey
and Shadrack Nash—leave the confines of Brennen Siding, the fishing
village on the banks of the Dungarvon River. Dryfly and Shadrack travel
to New Haven, and Shadrack continues on to New York. Palidin journeys to
Texas to sell his “magic flyhook” to a giant sporting-goods chain.

These excursions allow Curtis to expand his considerable writing
skills; he can invent characters other than the American “sports”
who come to fish the river and the Natives who guide them. As we delight
in being reacquainted with guides Bert Todder and Lindon Tucker, the
preacher John Kaston, and the odd couple Nutbeam and Shirley Ramsey, we
are introduced as well to Brandy Burgess (whose twin obsessions—the
Texas red wolf and cowboys—awaken Palidin’s own latent beliefs in
wildlife preservation).

While Curtis displays a new sexual dimension as both Dryfly and Shad
pursue their manhood, he does not neglect his established
strengths—the wonderful humor and humanity of his New Brunswickian
world rendered in the familiar vernacular of the two earlier books. His
writing has matured into literary art, full of gentle nuance and
descriptive power. In The Lone Angler, he displays an ability to juggle
at least three or four disparate story lines and to bring them together
for a truly satisfying conclusion. Curtis is becoming a national
treasure. Strongly recommended.