Started: 10.12.25
Finished: 14.12.25
Kindle
Been looking forwards to this for a while. It sounds amazing, I hope it doesn't turn out to be disappointing.
It's started off being narrated by someone called Abe. He tells the story of how he met and fell in love with his wife Marie, who sadly developed breast cancer which ended her life only a couple of years into their marriage. The thing that helped him was fishing, and he became almost obsessed with it.
He goes on to tell the story of a coworker of his, Dan, who very sadly loses his wife and twin sons in a terrible car accident. After a few months, Abe invites Dan to come fishing with him, and they strike up a slightly unlikely friendship.
That's roughly where I'm up to now. The writing style reminds me a bit of the few Stephen King books I've read, going into quite a lot of detail about the 'small town America' where the characters live, but I don't mind it so far.
Abe has hinted a little bit about the 'horror' that's to come, so I'm quite excited to see what happened at Dutchman's Creek.
Later
Well, I really enjoyed this! There are three parts to the story which I was aware of mainly thanks to the guy from Paperback Journeys. Part one is about Abe and Dan, and it ends as they stop off at a diner on the way to Dutchman's Creek. The location had been suggested by Dan, who claims to have read about it in a fishing book, but he's being quite vague. Howard, the chef from the diner, takes the time to warn them both to fish somewhere else, and then begins to tell the story of what happened at Dutchman's Creek. This forms Part two - it's Abe retelling Howard's account, but it's kind of like a novella in the middle of the book. Some people have criticised this, but to be honest, I didn't mind it. I think it would've been more confusing if it had kept jumping backwards and forwards in time. I preferred to read all about the past events in one go. Part three returns to the present, with Abe and Dan leaving the diner, not quite sure what they've just heard (well, Abe, at least) but still deciding to go and find Dutchman's Creek.
The Fisherman is classed as Cosmic Horror. I can't remember if this is my first experience with that genre. Basically, the fisherman of the title, also known as 'Der Fischer' is a Hungarian man who dabbles in some kind of magic in order to try and 'catch' the Leviathan, otherwise known as Apep or Apophis, to harness it's power to resurrect the dead. As far as I can gather, Apophis is an ancient Egyptian deity of the underworld who embodies darkness and disorder; an enormous serpent which encircles the earth. The Leviathan seems to mean different things in different religions, but generally seems to be regarded as evil and linked to the underworld.
Howard's account of what happened years before, when they were building the dam to make the Ashokan reservoir, involves the arrival of The Fisherman, and a woman who rises from the dead. A former professor called Rainer uses his knowledge to track down Der Fischer, who has almost caught the Leviathan with ropes as thick as tree trunks embedded with thousands of fish hooks. Rainer and his fellow men cut the ropes, one of which hooks into The Fisherman and takes him down into the dark ocean. Years later, Abe and Dan both meet The Fisherman, after he has once again almost caught the beast. He is weak now, and needs their strength. They both have visions of their dead wives (and Dan's sons) - Dan succumbs to the lure of being with his family again, but Abe resists. Dan's family changes into monsters which devour him. Abe escapes and washes up further down the river.
He avoids fishing for many years after that, until a young neighbour reignites his spark. During a flood, Dan returns for Abe, angry at him for not joining him to help Der Fischer. Abe chases him away by setting fire to him; Dan jumps back into the flood waters around the house, which Abe sees are full of bodies, including Marie. He leaves his house on a rescue boat.
I really enjoyed the writing in this book, and Abe was a very likeable character. Obviously the cosmic horror element is hard to get your head around, but that's kind of the point. I think I probably struggle to suspend my disbelief with things like this, which is what stops me from fully enjoying them, but I did enjoy this book and I'm glad that it lived up to the hype.
