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Joseph Monninger
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Joseph Monniger is the author of Home Waters: Fishing with an Old Friend and seven books of fiction and nonfiction. He lives in New Hampshire. |
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Joseph Monninger thought the worst when Nellie, his loyal golden retriever, became ill. Home Waters is the story of the road trip that Monninger decided to embark on with Nellie, traveling out West to revisit their favorite mountain haunts and trout streams. Expecting this to be their final excursion together, Monninger maps a course that includes the Wind River Range in Wyoming, the Bighorn River in Montana, and Henry Ford's River in Idaho.
Painting a loving portrait of his canine companion and the joys of fishing, Monninger recalls the life events that Nellie has seen him through and describes how, oblivious to her presumed health problems, Nellie contentedly watches bison at Yellowstone, chases a coyote, and falls head over heels for a Chesapeake retriever named Chunky. Combining the charm of John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley with the unsentimental storytelling of A River Runs Through It, Home Waters is a delightful story of a beautiful friendshipone that is, in the end, renewed rather than ended.
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This wonderfully written memoir about a man, his dog, and their journey together is as revealing about life as it is warm and amusing. Author Joseph Monninger is the kind of man "who feels a connection with an animal beyond what others might consider normal." So when Nellie, his eleven-year-old Golden Retreiver, develops lumps that are diagnosed as cancer, he loads his pickup truck and takes her on a final road trip to revisit their favorite mountain haunts and trout streams.
Their journey takes them to the Wind River Range in Wyoming, the Bighorn River in Montana, Henry's Fork River in Idaho, and little-known streams in Yellowstone National Park. The author casts for rainbow and cutthroat trout and enjoys the best fly-fishing of his life. He also finds new rewards in nature as he camps and hikes with Nellie in magnificent high country. And all the while, he is reflecting on Nellie and the events that she has seen him through--his marriage, buying and selling a house, a divorce, a new job.
In this moving yet unsentimental memoir, Joseph Monninger captures perfectly the joys of fishing, his love of dogs, and a passion for the natural world.
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The beauty of the New England countryside, the joys of forming a new family, and the adventure of renovating a nineteenth-century barn come together in Joe Monninger's warm and evocative memoir of home and hearth. When the author and his black Labrador, and Wendy and her eight-year-old son, move into a 6,000-square-foot barn in New Hampshire, they fall in love with the building, not realizing how much work it will take to remodel--let alone heat--their new home. While building a fence, putting in a garden, renovating the house, and exploring the land, the author finds his family's new life rooted in the area's old traditions, learning the history of covered bridges and New England's witchy past. They discover the best way to trim the grass (sheep), the delight of moving a 14-foot Christmas tree into their living room, and the spooky fun of holding a seance for Halloween.
With the charms of New England front and center, this endearing memoir captures the pleasures large and small of making a new place your own.
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