Review: 'The River You Touch,' by Chris Dombrowski

There's enjoying nature, and then there's the desire to be one with it. Poet Chris Dombrowski is in the latter category. A native of Michigan, he left the world of his "forbearers' General Motors jobs" when he was 19 "in search of wild trout [and] vast systems of unfettered freestone water." That journey is the subject of his memoir, "The River You Touch."

He wasn't alone in his journey. His future wife, Mary, left her hometown of Chicago and traveled west in search of "a life less bound by convention." This book is an account of the life they built together near Rattlesnake Creek in Missoula, Mont., "a love song to the rivers on which I've guided for twenty-five years and the land through which they pulse like veins."

Dombrowski cobbles together a living by working as a fly-fishing guide and teaching composition classes while also helping at a homeless shelter and, in his spare time, writing poems. He describes in great detail the many hours he spent not only hunting and fishing but also cooking his quarry, with loving descriptions of smoked pheasant, "elk shanks osso buco," and braised antelope.

Dombrowski does a nice job of capturing the doubts he confronts, from concerns about whether he would be a good parent — the couple have three children, whom he writes about with endearing affection — to whether he should take a more stable job at a life insurance company, where his father-in-law arranged an interview. And his passion for the land, evident on every page, is particularly beautiful when he writes about the rivers, such as how "the tannin-rich Big Hole turns from tea-with-cream to a briefly steeped Earl Grey."

Occasionally, he tries too hard to sound poetic, which leads to sentences like, "Cutting through the thermocline, I surface to a view of Mary's incomparable shoulder."

Some details might put off more sensitive readers, such as a particularly graphic description of the way in which grouse is prepared. But even readers who aren't hunter-gatherers like Dombrowski will find themes they can relate to, from concerns about each person's carbon footprint and the need for "thoughtful outdoorspeople," to questions of whether one is living according to one's values, to the importance of protecting public lands.

And the book contains fascinating scientific information, as when he writes of the number of scent receptors possessed by various mammals, from 5 million in humans to 500 million in a black bear. There's enjoying nature, and then there's ability to write well about it. "The River You Touch" is a love song that readers with the same musical taste are sure to admire.

Michael Magras is a freelance book critic. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Times Literary Supplement, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Kirkus Reviews, and BookPage.

The River You Touch

By: Chris Dombrowski.

Publisher: Milkweed Editions, 336 pages, $25.