Fishing for Freedom: Life Lessons Learned by a Young Coastal Fisherman in the Summer of '64

At age 16, young Larry Sparks is spending his fourth consecutive summer as the crewman on his father's 48-foot coastal gillnet fishing boat. In one sense, he is learning a trade. But in the summer of '64, he is reaching a peak in his physical powers and has a deep-seated desire to learn more about who he will grow up to be, so he invests his thinking time by investigating the fundamental rules and principles of adult living and of the very business his father is in.

He tolerates the boredom of traveling hundreds of miles on the ocean, always ready to meet the physical challenges of being a commercial fisherman in daily combat with the salmon he needs to catch in order to achieve financial security for his family, and he faces the sometimes dangerous adventures that the sea always provides mariners of all stripes as they challenge nature at her elemental best.

Not only is Larry's story interesting even to non-fishermen, it is filled with the kinds of daily escapades that may very well equal those of Mark Twain's immortal Tom Sawyer -- except that Larry, inhibited by the very solitary nature of his work, has a great deal of trouble finding the Becky Thatcher of his dreams.

But does he find her? Read this book and find out.