reviews:

David Zincavage of San Carlos, California is known to subscribers of the Yale Class of 1970 listserv as an articulate conservative with an acerbic sense of humor. He mentioned on one of his posts that he was also an angler, so I sent him STRIPAH. He responded by buying several copies that he sent to influential friends and giving me all kinds of helpful suggestions. He even tracked down my previous books and read them. I've never met David, but if I could find a hundred readers like him, I could rule the world. Here's his five-star on Amazon review.

Artie Gordon, formerly a successful Hollywood director, finds his career in ruins after making a politically incorrect motion picture. He flees the disaster, returning to his New England roots to hide out in the beach house where his family vacationed during boyhood summers. Decades of neglect conveniently provide our shaken protagonist with an abundance of therapeutic maintenance and repair projects. A slacker cousin, currently operating the local baitshop, fortunately remains in situ to provide advice.

In the midst of learning to perform his fix-up chores, Artie annoys Shea Provost, the attractive female resident of the cottage next door, also self-exiled to the Indian Mound beachfront. Their conflict naturally leads ultimately to a relationship. But there is no escape from politics these days, even on summer resort beaches, for remote descendants of the local Wompanoags, in search of tribal recognition (and a casino), lay siege with real estate claims to Artie's summer community. Mercifully, Artie's sanity is saved via an encounter with a genius loci (doubling as newspaper outdoor columnist), who initiates him into the obsessive pursuit of striped bass with fly rod as means to spiritual enlightenment.

This author never takes his characters or his plotting too seriously, just playfully moves everything along with a light touch. Nonetheless, Stripah Love successfully serves up an affectionate portrait of a particular sort of family and a particular American region. It also made me laugh aloud a couple of times.