MIDCOAST BEACON • May 2024
Another excellent book, in a long parade of Maine- based books, has been pub- lished by Islandport Press in Yarmouth. “Tributaries” by Ryan Brod, filmmaker, writer and fishing guide, is a collection of fishing essays that, as the dust cover pro- claims, “explores the lines between passion and obses- sion.” I had not heard of Ryan Brod, a Smithfield Maine native, who teaches creative writ- ing at the University of New England and has been published in several national magazines. I liked his book a lot! One of the deeper themes in this book is father/son relationships. In his chapter,” Before Dark,” he laments the aging and imminent passing of his favorite fishing buddy, his father. Like many a younger son, he had always figured that he would lose his father quickly, from a heart attack, while cutting firewood or on a deer hunt. “Instead, I have witnessed his slow progression toward old age, the gradients of which...have been painful to witness.” The father “is losing his mind’s archives as his illness progressed – a lifetime of fish, tides, names, faces – gone.” ~ V. Paul Reynolds