The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing

by Melissa Bank
4 out of 5 stars

There are three ways to start this review, and I’ll share them all, because I can’t decide.

1.     This book has nothing to do with hunting or fishing, and there’s actually only one tiny metaphorical reference to it in the whole book.

2.     Don’t read the publisher’s book jacket, because it makes this book sound like shallow chick lit, and it’s very much not.

3.     Reading this book is like meeting the kind of person that you just fall into an easy friendship with—at first you don’t even give it much thought; you just start hanging out, making plans, sharing meals and inside jokes. You might even take the relationship for granted a little bit. Then one day you suddenly realize, OMG, I’m in love! That’s what protagonist Jane Rosenal and her quirky friends and lovers do for this book, and that’s kind of what the book is about too.

 OK, so #3 is probably the most insightful, but you really need to know #1 and #2 going into it.

From the books’ start when Jane is 14 on through her adult years, she’s just kind of going along, living her life and wondering about what love and happiness are, what they look like, and how she’ll know when she finds them. She’s got her fair share of insecurities, but she’s also smart and plucky, she’s kind of a smart ass, and her humor is both her defense and lure (there’s a fishing reference for you). It’s also a delight for us as readers.*

As she faces the challenges of career climbing, dating an odd spectrum of men (she’s at her best with Archie, who’s 20+ years older and seems to “get” her the best but doesn’t make her happy), messy and non-messy breakups, family drama and family illness, and her own mortality, Jane becomes someone you root for and end up missing when the book is done.

The writing is mostly first person except for one chapter that’s not (?). I’m not even sure what it’s called, but you’ll know it when you see it. I can’t say any more, or it would be a spoiler. And there’s also one chapter, also first person, but from a neighbor’s perspective, and it’s very odd and random and has nothing to do with Jane, like maybe it was from another book and got stuck into this one by mistake. Seriously, I can’t figure that one out, but it’s short, so I just shook my head and moved on. (But if anyone figures that out, let me know!)

*After a date with Archie:

The only movie he wanted to see was Key Largo at the revival house on Eighth Street. Afterward, walking out, he told me that while Bogart was dying, Lauren Bacall slept with Frank Sinatra. “Don’t ever do that to me, okay, honey?”

I said, “I don’t even like Frank Sinatra.”

See what I mean? That’s so funny!