By Sarah Stonich
University Of Minnesota Press (March 24, 2020)
It takes a while for a plot to surface in Sarah Stonich’s FISHING! You won’t mind, though. Stonich’s sardonic wit and absurdist humor hooks you from the first chapter and reels you in without a fight. The audio version of the book pumps up the experience through the narrative mastery of Kimberly M. Wetherell, who brings the charm, sassiness, or abrasion needed for each character’s voice.
If you read the cover copy of FISHING!, you won’t be expecting navel-gazing, new-age literary pretentions, nor protagonists oozing toxic masculinity. Yet these two literary tropes provide hilarious irony against Stonich’s uber cautious, self-effacing protagonist RayAnne Dahl. In her early 30s, RayAnne is already disillusioned by the smallness of her life when compared to her larger-than-life family members. Nevermind that RayAnne hosts a highly-rated PBS talk show for women, ironically called Fishing!—which happens to take place on a super-sexy, speed boat named Penelope—RayAnn just doesn’t get what a big deal she is.
After graduating university with a journalism degree, RayAnne avoided adulting by making a name for herself as a woman successing (sic) in the sportfishing circuit. It’s as if she has success-dysmorphia (like body dysmorphia blocks a person’s ability to accurately perceive their body size/shape), or perhaps what’s actually recognized as “imposter’s syndrome.”
It could be because RayAnne sees herself a minnow in a family of whales, groupers, and sturgeons (thankfully, no sharks). Her divorced parents are huge fish in their own small ponds. Big Rick, her raging alcoholic father, was once a top-tier sport fisherman and host of his own short-lived fishing show. Her new-age diva mother leads shamanic retreats to guide women through menopause and never available when RayAnne seems to need her. RayAnne’s brother is a writer and work-from-home father of twin boys, married to an uber-successful Harvard-educated brainiac who is both beautiful and nice. Over it all is Dot, Big Rick’s mother, a former chef who now volunteers her culinary chops at a homeless shelter. It’s no wonder RayAnne has issues.
In the final episode of her show’s second season, RayAnne melts down during an interview with the cameras rolling. What she sees as complete failure is perceived by her sponsors and viewers as transcendent in honesty and revelatory in character. Only through the sassy uplifting of her grandmother Dot, tied to a tear-jerking decision no one should ever have to make, does RayAnne begin to see herself and her important others without bias and judgment.
The ending scenes were lovely and respectful, despite the harrowing decisions made by the characters. The magic of it all is how Stonich maintains the humor without casting away the pathos.
