Travel Companions Book Review: “Calling After Water”

Calling After Water is a warmly reflective collection of nineteen essays charting Dave Karczynski’s evolution from penniless adjunct to seasoned angler, traveler, husband, and soon-to-be father. The narrative wanders from childhood creeks in the Midwest to remote rivers in Patagonia, Alaska, and Poland, with writing that shines brightest when adventure is balanced with lyrical introspection.

Karczynski’s prose is vibrant and effortless, breathing life into rivers and streams. The essays do more than recount fishing escapades; they meditate on why we fish, exploring how our relationship to water shapes our relationship to ourselves. Karczynski is never content with mere storytelling—he probes deeper truths, and his humility and humor set him apart.

As the collection winds to a close, the essays circle back toward the future, following Karczynski as he embraces the next chapter of family—and fishing—as a father.

Excerpt: 
We motor into a large wilderness of mangroves veined with channels running between little islands. Strong tidal currents here and there. A good place to hunt, for bonefish and bonefish angler alike.

I wander off as far as I can while still seeing the boat. I glimpse nothing, nothing, nothing for an hour. I open my last Kalik. The wind picks up, howls around me, pulls a little bit of music out of the bottle—almost but not quite the cooing Amber uses to talk to Summer.

And then I see something. Maybe. A slight aberration of light, far off and moving deeper into the flat, a wandering scrap of pale shadow. If it’s a fish it’s quartering steeply away, already at the limit of my casting and going farther out. I cast beyond myself, not a measured presentation but a half-blind heave. Somewhere in the indeterminate distance the fly lands. There’s a tap tap. And then my reel is spinning in a blur as my fly line breaks for the horizon.

I hold fast to the cork as the drag whines and the fish flees, and suddenly I am six years old, flying a kite with my father, caught in that moment when the wind rips and grabs and all you can do is just stand there, index fingers in the tubes of the spool, trying to keep all other digits clear. Sometimes you got the kite back and sometimes you lost it.

Overview

• Prose & Imagery: Critics praise Karczynski’s lyrical, grounded writing—no clichés, just vivid, fresh language. 

• Accessible Depth: Travel stories never feel remote; they’re rooted in self‑reflection and universal themes. 

• Humor & Honesty: Frequently self‑deprecating and warmly candid—readers feel like companions by the river or around the campfire. 

Readers who will enjoy Calling After Water

• Fly‑fishing enthusiasts craving more than how‑to tales.

• Lovers of literary travel memoirs—bright imagery, honest emotions.

• Anyone drawn to stories of personal growth shaped by nature’s rhythms.

Verdict: Calling After Water is an immersive, heartfelt journey—equal parts adventure, philosophy, and lyrical writing. It honors the soul of fishing while exploring what it teaches us about life and belonging. Strongly recommended for anglers and non-anglers alike.