BOOK REVIEW - THE FISHERMAN BY JOHN LANGAN

The Fisherman weighs a little heavy on the cosmic side of "cosmic horror," with a majority of the tale being told to our protagonists in the heart of the story. The Fisherman is the story of Abe and Dan, two coworkers united by their love of fishing and the unrelated losses of their respective families. It starts off so strongly it pulled me in right from the beginning. Abe and Dan spend months fishing together in near silence until the off season arrives, pulling Dan back into his fog of grief. After weeks of excessive alcohol use and trips to the intersection where his family was killed, he approaches Abe out of the blue with a new fishing spot - Dutchman's Creek. 

Abe and Dan stop by a diner for breakfast on the way and are told a whopper (literally!) of a fish tale while they wait out a torrential downpour. This story-within-a-story makes up at least half of the book, and admittedly doesn't move as quite quickly as the rest of the story. There's backstory to be told regarding the land surrounding Dutchman's Creek and how it came to be. I wasn't able to keep the same pace because the overall tone changes a little once we travel back in time, it gets a little slower. Now, this is not to say it's bad, because it's not at all. What happens in the past that seems unimportant to our widowers is outright terrifying. It's a sorrowful tale with a lot of weight. Once the tale returns to our widowers it does pick up again, but the effects of such a heavy middle act do not go unremembered. 

Once our fellows head back into the afternoon, they go fishing. I'll just leave it at that. It's a horrific story of loss, desperation, and madness. I look forward to more of Langan's works, because he is a fantastic writer and this was a beautiful book.