The Contest
James Hurley
Islandport Press, 2013
250 Pages
BS. That’s Benedict Salem. He’s a semi-retired transplanted fly fisherman/writer and main character in James Hurley’s fly fishing novel “The Contest”. The hub of BS’s new town in rural Maine, the Crossing House, is a local hotel, restaurant and meeting place for local anglers.
Bill Cahill, owner of the Crossing House, is an old timer who loves to talk fly fishing and treasures a collection of old fishing literature and writings from former Crossing House owner Samuel Tippett.
Over time, and for more than one reason, the anglers form a fishing group – the Samuel Tippet’s Fly Fishers, or STIFFS. The group functions as a great way to bring the anglers together, but eventually devolves into an unending series of arguments and fights, mostly spurred by what becomes known as “The Contest”. It’s a fly fishing competition aimed at determining the perfect trout fly, but turns into much more.
Throughout the contest, members of the STIFFS learn about life, themselves and each other. The experience proves to be about much more than just fly fishing, which is Hurley’s intent from the beginning.
I’ll be honest, “The Contest” is not the most well written novel, and the plot isn’t the best developed or most captivating. The dialogue is pretty raw, with plenty of foul language. It’s probably not a book you’d want your youngsters to read.
But as the saying goes, it is what it is. Hurley writes from the heart and is clearly immersed in the plot on a very personal level. And it’s a fly fishing novel. You don’t see bookshelves full of ‘em. “The Contest” certainly has a place in some anglers’ libraries, and gives a little taste of stream fishing during the cold winter months.
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