The Sharks of Lake Nicaragua: True Tales of Adventure, Travel, and Fishing

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Whether he's engaging in mock aerial combat or riding an Ididarod sled, Randy Wayne White is one of America's most adventurous travelers. In this collection he studies anti-terrorist driving techniques, dives for golf balls in an alligator-infested pond at a country club, hunts his fellow man with a paint gun, ice-fishes for walleye with X-ray-stunned night-crawlers, and goes pig-shooting with Dr. Pavlov. With self-effacing optimism, White captures the joys and fears of wandering the earth's surface with an eclectic cast of weirdo fellow-travelers - a frog that won't jump, a group of expatriate Brits who've developed an interesting cure for "road jaundice," and even a mad Australian scientist.

Though he rarely finds what he's looking for - like the legendary landlocked bull sharks of Lake Nicaragua, or the secret to successful winter fishing on a Minnesota lake - he develops a Zen-like "passion for the means" and a rare ability to revel in the rib-aching humor of each exotic trip.

In the end, White leaves the reader as mesmerized as roadkill by the potential of undiscovered places and the promise of endless adventure in unfamiliar territory, from Florida to Borneo and everywhere in between. As important to the new breed of thick-skinned, high-endurance adventure travelers of the 1990s as Jack Kerouac was to the drug-crazed drifters of the 1960s, Randy White uniquely extols the pleasures of being "alone and on the move."

SYNOPSIS

Whether he's engaging in mock aerial combat or riding an Iditarod sled, Randy Wayne White is one of America's most adventurous travelers. In this collection he studies anti-terrorist driving techniques, dives for golf balls in an alligator-infested pond, hunts his fellow man with a paint gun, ice-fishes for walleye with X-ray-stunned night-crawlers, and goes pig-shooting with Dr. Pavlov. With self-effacing optimism, White captures the joys and fears of wandering the earth's surface with an eclectic cast of fellow travelers: a frog that won't jump, a group of expatriate Brits who've developed an interesting cure for "road jaundice," and even a mad Australian scientist.

Though he rarely finds what he's looking for-like the legendary landlocked bull sharks of Lake Nicaragua-he develops a Zen-like "passion for the means" and a rare ability to revel in the rib-aching humor of each exotic trip.

In the end, White leaves the reader mesmerized by the potential of undiscovered places and the promise of endless adventure in unfamiliar territory, from Florida to Borneo and everywhere in between. A leader of the new breed of thick-skinned, high-endurance adventure travelers of the 1990s, Randy Wayne White uniquely extols the pleasures of being "alone and on the move."

FROM THE CRITICS

Chicago Tribune

White's exuberance and his agility with language make his stories stunningly vivid for armchair traveler and rugged adventurer alike, this is good, funny, invigorating stuff.

Wall Street Journal

A gentle humorist, Mr. White holds his own as a fine narrative writer.

Miami Sunday Herald

What fun it is to join White, dashing through the snow on a five-dog Iditarod sled in Alaska, on a frozen lake in Minnesota, on a combat jet dogfighting in the sky above Orlando, all vicariously but just about as vividly as if we were there.

Publishers Weekly

For exciting adventures in feral pig-hunting, salt-water fly-fishing or crocodile poaching, it's hard to imagine a better guide than White. In these stories, originally published in different forms in Outside magazine, White (Batfishing in the Rainforest) proves his mettle as an incisive humorist and a first-rate travel journalist. A "desire not to be whacked" leads him to an antiterrorist driving school, where, with hilarious effect, he learns the ins and outs of avoiding bullets, rockets and bombs while operating a motor vehicle. In fighter-pilot training, he overcomes "sympathetic ocular/auditory response" ("If bounced around in an airplane, my eyes begin to water, so it appears as if I am weeping while I upchuck") and smokes his opponent with imaginary 20mm. cannons. White has a knack for the unexpected adventure. An innocent search for Pepto-Bismol in Panama City ends in a crocodile-hunting expedition. But it isn't until the book's final (and title) piece that White showcases the full range of his abilities as a writer. During his quixotic search for freshwater sharks, he becomes as immersed in the culture of the country as a 220-lb. American driving a Toyota Land Cruiser can be. He chases a pig into a sacred vestry, disrupting a wedding ceremony, and later gives shining new baseballs to children whose love of the game rivals his own. The portrait of Nicaragua and its people that emerges is a refreshingly unpoliticized history, skillfully interwoven with personal experience. (July) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

New York Times Book Review

What Mr. White is good at is finding the unbeaten path to nowhere and teaching the reader how to follow his example. . . . And what he is very good at is evoking the scene once he gets there.Read all 6 "From The Critics" >

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Randy White is a hell of a good writer, the real McCoy. — Jon Krakauer

Randy White is not simply a wonderful writer; he is a fishing guide of genius. — Paul Theroux