The TGBC Review of Trout Fishing in America assumed that the novel Trout Fishing in America would be about trout fishing in America, which is not neccessarily to say it isn’t. Trout Fishing in America is a bizarre and hallucinatory novel(?), that plays with ideas of language and meaning and reality, it is a work that defies description and it is a disservice to the work to attempt to do so; trout fishing in America is a pastime available to anyone who happens to be in America.

A recipe for trout:

Ingredients 2 x 300 g whole trout , from sustainable sources, ask your fishmonger, scaled, cleaned and gutted olive oil sea salt freshly ground black pepper 1 large bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley , leaves picked and chopped 2 lemons , 1 zested and sliced, 1 halved a few knobs butter

Method 1. Preheat your grill to full whack. Slash each trout with a knife, about ten times on each side. Each slash should be about 0.5cm/¼ inch deep. Rub the trout with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Stuff the cavities with plenty of chopped parsley and the lemon slices. Place the fish side by side on a baking rack over a roasting tray. 2. Put the lemon zest on top of the fish and place the lemon halves on the tray too. Dot the trout with the butter and place it 15cm/6 inches from the grill. Cook for around 6 minutes on each side until crispy and golden. 3. Squeeze the roasted lemon over the top of the fish and serve with a simple crunchy side salad.

It was just recently that the TGBC Review of Trout Fishing in America was taken by the urge to finish itself with the word mayonaise.

Patrick Jovaras (Collingwod Chapter)