Biblical Siblings, Being a Brother’s Keeper, and Fly Fishing as Therapy in Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It

Abstract

This essay is a close reading of A River Runs Through It taking Maclean’s opening line, “In our family there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing” is a guide to three elements in the novel: biblical siblings in the Old and New Testament as prototypes of Norman and Paul, the futile efforts of both to be brother’s and brother’s-in-law keepers and fly fishing as curative and restorative remedy.