Bye bye, Big Jim

The first sound that came out of my mouth was FUCK! But not just fuck in fact I said FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK! Big Jim, my idole, the one I owe so much, we all owe so much, died yesterday, a quiet death after a life filled with so many dreams, so many stories, so many feelings he had been able to share with us. Jim Harrison is probably one of the best american writers of our generation, at least he known as one of the most important ones.

Why do we owe him so much? First aof all he is one of the only writers I know who is able to write about those thoughts we have, he is, beyond being able to write those amazing stories which are fascinating us, a magician of words, a poet and a bon vivant. He was able to write simple stories, a thousand light years from our reality but to which we could identify, as if he was writing about our lives, about our fellings. In my opinion he is one of the writers who described the best the life the West, talking about simple lives, sordianry people and making them so captivating their mondane lives would become one of the richest. Than, if Le Mouching exists, it’s in part thanks to him, I didn’t get into fishing because my father tought me, or my grand father, nobody fishes in my family, I came to fly fishing because I read his books, because I listened to his interviews, because I wanted to do the same, I wanted to understand those feelings, tose emotions he was talking about, I wanted to do the same, I wanted to be part of it. So tonight I am going to read an excerpet from The Raw and the Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand, because it’s one of the books who describes him the best, even if it’s not his best one. And maybe I’ll watch Tarpon, a masterpiece from Guy de la Valdene who manages to shoot an amazing treesome of contemporary american litterature: Richard Brautigan, Thomas McGuane and Jim Harrison.

So today I am sad, as Brown Dog, one of his best caracters, I am sad and I feel like an orphan.