Robert J. Romano Jr. lives in northwestern New Jersey with his wife, Trish, and their two Labrador retrievers, Winslow Homer and Finnegan. It might be appropriate one of the dogs is named after a great painter, because Romano's writing, like that of other novelists I read, reminds me of scenes captured not by camera pixels, but paint. As an aside, before I get further into my review of Romano's latest book, The River King: a Fly Fishing Novel, as an aside I point out that for an avid photographer, I feel peculiarly prejudiced against the art of selecting images by use of the technological device, but then again, I used to draw and paint, and I remember how it feels to create an image from the mind by placing marks on paper or canvas by pencil, pen, or paint brush.
An artist does much the same with words, and even though words don't have direct color tone and texture as does paint, at best their evocative value has the effect upon the reader of creating scenes in the mind. I read Romano's new book with great pleasure, because it invited me to visit the Rangeley region of western Maine, and why should I have denied myself this pleasure? Not only did I go through the portal to another place so well depicted, I met characters there who I won't forget.
Before I say more about the story, but withhold most of what I could show and tell you so I don't give too much away, a little more about Romano. His blog, Forgotten Trout, I had read some of before I read his novel. Here's the link: http:/www.forgottentrout.com/ The details trace the kind of descriptions I think we all want to slow down and savor, though the hyper-speed warp of life today makes the mind impatient and disables the sense. I came first upon Romano's book Fishing with Fairies at Clarence Dillon Public Library in Bedminster many years ago, before I first encountered New Jersey Skylands Visitor, a publication I, too, have had the privilege of writing for. Romano writes for it regularly.
I think the writing of any novel requires of the author a paradox. He must slow down to create scene and character, because he mustn't miss evocative detail by which his readers will imaginatively experience place and people, but the mind of an artist involves an unruly ability to move at lightning speed. Such a mind is much quicker than any mind dependent on mobile devices. The notion that electronic pulses move faster than the thoughts of a free mind is absurd. The mind of a novelist leaps across a story's range so every detail contained in the story arc implies the whole.
Again, I won't give the story away, but I will tell you Romano creates suspense. He breaks his chapters by shifting chronology, thus building upon present time by backstory that creates depth, mulling the reader into moods suddenly alarmed by new developments on the next page, achieving sharp intensity. The climax comes late in the story and do not miss it.
I'm proud to know one of us among New Jersey writers has got so many books published and particularly of this most recent. I could say outdoor writers, especially because, like me, Romano is a member of Outdoor Writers Association of America, but basically we're writers first, I believe, and about the outdoors second. I get that impression from The River King: A Fly Fishing Novel. It's a story about life.
Link to product offer: https://www.textbookx.com/book/The-River-King/9780963310965/
An artist does much the same with words, and even though words don't have direct color tone and texture as does paint, at best their evocative value has the effect upon the reader of creating scenes in the mind. I read Romano's new book with great pleasure, because it invited me to visit the Rangeley region of western Maine, and why should I have denied myself this pleasure? Not only did I go through the portal to another place so well depicted, I met characters there who I won't forget.
Before I say more about the story, but withhold most of what I could show and tell you so I don't give too much away, a little more about Romano. His blog, Forgotten Trout, I had read some of before I read his novel. Here's the link: http:/www.forgottentrout.com/ The details trace the kind of descriptions I think we all want to slow down and savor, though the hyper-speed warp of life today makes the mind impatient and disables the sense. I came first upon Romano's book Fishing with Fairies at Clarence Dillon Public Library in Bedminster many years ago, before I first encountered New Jersey Skylands Visitor, a publication I, too, have had the privilege of writing for. Romano writes for it regularly.
I think the writing of any novel requires of the author a paradox. He must slow down to create scene and character, because he mustn't miss evocative detail by which his readers will imaginatively experience place and people, but the mind of an artist involves an unruly ability to move at lightning speed. Such a mind is much quicker than any mind dependent on mobile devices. The notion that electronic pulses move faster than the thoughts of a free mind is absurd. The mind of a novelist leaps across a story's range so every detail contained in the story arc implies the whole.
Again, I won't give the story away, but I will tell you Romano creates suspense. He breaks his chapters by shifting chronology, thus building upon present time by backstory that creates depth, mulling the reader into moods suddenly alarmed by new developments on the next page, achieving sharp intensity. The climax comes late in the story and do not miss it.
I'm proud to know one of us among New Jersey writers has got so many books published and particularly of this most recent. I could say outdoor writers, especially because, like me, Romano is a member of Outdoor Writers Association of America, but basically we're writers first, I believe, and about the outdoors second. I get that impression from The River King: A Fly Fishing Novel. It's a story about life.
Link to product offer: https://www.textbookx.com/book/The-River-King/9780963310965/
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