Publishers Weekly
05/27/2019
Fishing columnist Messineo recounts a life spent fishing on Martha’s Vineyard in her delightful debut. Growing up in blue-collar New England mill towns, Messineo was a tomboy who evolved into a hippy in the late 1960s and followed an artsy path until she ended up in Martha’s Vineyard, where she eventually elbowed her way into the masculine sport of surfcasting. Chasing monster striped bass and toothy bluefish, she found her calling and redemption in fishing, which saved her from a failed marriage, addiction to drugs and alcohol, and a hand-to-mouth existence (she started off selling her catch to local restaurants). She writes with a beginner’s excitement about hooking a fish, such as when she landed a 45-pound bass: “My heart was pounding... my knees were shaking... I set the hook. Luck was with me and I was on again.” Messineo walks a tightrope of reporting (“bluefish have large razor-sharp teeth that are set into strong, unyielding jaws”) and memoir by giving great insight into the existence of professional anglers and the insular culture of Martha’s Vineyard. She ends with a selection of her favorite fish recipes, baked stuff bay scallops and bluefish cakes among them. Messineo’s captivating memoir brings a refreshing mix of vulnerability, accessibility, and joy to the fishing genre. (July)
From the Publisher
"One of the chief pleasures of Casting Into the Light is its evocation of a collegial fishing community . . . warm-hearted . . . Messineo is an amiable and entertaining storyteller whomuch to her own surprisehas found a sort of bliss."
Richard Adams Carey, The Wall Street Journal
"A bright thread in the narrative is the sense of a social fabric binding the island at large and fishermen of every gender . . . lucid prose . . . sentences as natural as waves."
Philip Kopper, Washington Times
“Eloquent . . . a remarkable book by a remarkable Vineyard bass fisherman . . . Janet Messineo’s story is gripping; bright, funny, and illuminating. It has everything . . . more than a fish story, it’s the story of a very remarkable human being, a person who refused to be shoehorned into a category society felt comfortable with and set out instead to create something truly unique—herself.”
—Rob Conery, Cape Cod Times
“Tells it like it is . . . real . . . authentic . . . [Messineo is] a natural storyteller . . . She effortlessly conveys the tangible and intangible elements of surfcasting. Her descriptions of the relentless hope that renews with every cast and drives hard-core fishermen to stay out long after it’s stopped being fun are recognizable to anyone who has fished and enlightening to anyone who has not . . . Vulnerability is rarely on display in the male-dominated surfcasting community. How fitting that after having to prove she belongs despite being a woman, it’s perhaps because she is a woman that she was able to write a memoir that deserves a spot among the best books ever written about surfcasting.”
—Kevin Blinkoff, On the Water Magazine
“Uniquely excellent . . . Sure, it’s about fishing, but that’s just one element in a memoir about [Messineo’s] life inside and outside fishing . . . It’s also a book about overcoming fear. In the early days, Messineo fished alone, often at night, standing in roiling surf in waterlogged waders, all she could afford then. She knew the dangers of the sea and the lives lost to wind and water on the Island. She conveys that feeling of experiencing the power of nature . . . Her book is full of fishing yarns, stories, quirks and superstitions, her own and others’ . . . You can hear her voice on the page. If you don’t know her, you’ll want to . . . This is a great read if you fish, and an equally important book if you don’t.”
—Jack Shea, Martha’s Vineyard Times
"Terrific . . . affecting . . . categorizing this as a fishing book would be doing it a disservice. At its heart, this is a book about renewal. It will fill you with hope."
—Steve Donoghue, The Vineyard Gazette
"A must-read . . . inspirational."
—Booklist (starred review)
"How Janet Messineo, through sheer grit, managed to acquire her skills and gain acceptance into the boys' club of master fishermen on Martha's Vineyard reads like a fairytale in which a callow youth overcomes endless obstacles to realize a seemingly impossible dream. But be warned: Once you start reading this gripping and instructive saga, it's hard to put it down."
—Lisa Alther
"Delightful . . . great insight into the existence of professional anglers and the insular culture of Martha's Vineyard . . . Messineo's captivating memoir brings a refreshing mix of vulnerability, accessibility, and joy to the fishing genre."
—Publishers Weekly
"A tackle box full of fishing tips, memories, histories, taxidermy, and even recipes from an angler who found focus and purpose for her life among her fellow fishermen on Martha's Vineyard . . . A chronicle of a life in fishing by an author who seems like good company."
—Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
2019-04-28
A tackle box full of fishing tips, memories, histories, anecdotes, taxidermy, and even recipes from an angler who found focus and purpose for her life among her fellow fishermen on Martha's Vineyard.
Though the location suggests a life of leisure among the privileged elite, Messineo endured a hardscrabble upbringing and found herself among the outsider artistic community, working as a waitress and overindulging in drugs and alcohol. Fishing likely saved her life, or at least gave her one, though she doesn't belabor the redemptive spirit as much as the title suggests. The author also doesn't wax too poetic, at least once she moves beyond the introduction, where she describes fishing as "the meditative place similar to where gardeners go when they kneel in the dirt and dig their fingers in the soil….Standing in the surf, casting my lure toward the horizon, I feel like I am the woman I'm meant to be….My life becomes meaningful and I feel part of my surroundings." Comparatively, the rest of the memoir is more nuts-and-bolts description: how and where the author learned to fish, how she went from feeling like an intruder to being accepted as a rare woman in a sport dominated by men, how the ethics and competition of fishing have changed—and how cheaters have occasionally rigged that competition and gotten away with it. Messineo writes about lucky sweaters and about how unlucky bananas are for fishermen. She touches on her marriages and the son she and her husband have adopted, and she treads lightly on the schizophrenia of her fishing mentor, who eventually succumbed to suicide. Whereas many fishing memoirs are often more literary, turning that time with nature into a spiritual pilgrimage and the art of fishing into a metaphor for life, this is more about fishing itself, written for readers who like to fish or think they might like to learn.
A chronicle of a life in fishing by an author who seems like good company.