David Kinney - The Big One: An Island, an Obsession, and the Furious Pursuit of a Great Fish

A Forbes Best Sports Book of the Year
A Popular Mechanics Best Book of the Year
Selected by the New York Post as Required Reading
Selected by the Daily Beast as Recommended Reading

Fabulous Unforgettable The Big One had me on the edge of my seat, kept me up nights, and turned out to be one of the best books Ive ever read.

The Star-Ledger (Newark)

A rollicking account of the annual striped bass and bluefish derby on Marthas Vineyard, spiked with the you-are-there view of the beauty, folly, and humanity of the participants. Kinney follows some of the most intriguing personalities, does a bit of fishing, and documents the at-times tricky relationship between the blue-collar derby participants and the well-to-do seasonal residents of the island.

Forbes

Fish fan or not, you will find the narratives and characters in The Big One rich and intriguing and weird and wonderful. A great read and a great tale.

Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief

A terrific book and a great story. Good storytelling is good storytelling, and I think the best thing I could say is this: Everyone should read one book about fishing as sports competition. This is that book.

Dan Shanoff, The Sporting News

One of the best fishing books Ive reviewed in quite a while.

The Plain Dealer

The Big One offers an unforgettable view of a remarkable fishing derby, the island on which it takes place, the drama, the shenanigans, and its unique participants. All fishermen will love this book.

Nick Lyons, author of The Gigantic Book of Fishing Stories

A roaring account The Big One is a fun, two-fisted read. Ive fished the derby before and the excitement that surges through town is electric. Rumors, laughter and accusations fly. Kinneys book captures these tales of chicanery, one-upsmanship, and braggadocio, and just the overall weirdness.

Cape Cod Times

Catching a fish off a Vineyard beach at derby-time is about as much fun as you can have with waders on, and in The Big One David Kinney nails the chase and captures the thrill. His book is funny, brackish and moving. A keeper.

Michael Bamberger, senior writer, Sports Illustrated

Well researched and frankly told, The Big One is a striking tale of Americas fixation with a little island with gargantuan personality. Kinney delivers bright, boisterous prose true to the derbys melee of egos, fishy romance, and the quixotically obsessed.

Fly Fisherman

A great tale What makes Kinneys book so fascinating is that its not just a book about fishing, but a book that uses the fishing culture of the island to weave in and out of the ridiculously complex fabric that is Vineyard society. Like most great nonfiction, it reveals characters fiction writers would be hard-pressed to duplicate. If you fish, or love the Vineyard, orbest caseboth, The Big One is well worth the time, the firewood, and the scotch.

The Marthas Vineyard Times

Engaging A fine book Even if you care little for fishing, it is worth reading for the characters, the rivalry, the drama, and the eccentricities of this place.

Vineyard Gazette

A great fishing book.

MidCurrent

Whoever said fishing is boring was dead wrong. The Big One is smart, funny, and lively. Its populated by a cast of colorful obsessives. Its elegantly written and deeply felt. David Kinney has crafted a portrait of a place, a culture, and a tradition with a message bigger than any Derby-winning striper: that life truly is all about the chase.

Stefan Fatsis, author of A Few Seconds of Panic and Word Freak

[Kinney] has pulled off a few feats most angling scribes cant contemplate, most notably ingratiating himself into a closed secret society that makes The Da Vinci Code look like a church bake sale. A keeper of a fishing book.

Reel-Time.com

In The Big One, David Kinney goes deep to find big fish, bigger characters, and even a bit of controversy in this rollicking tale of the madness that is the Marthas Vineyard fishing derby. He clearly had a great time writing this book. Youll have a blast reading it.

Monte Burke, author of Sowbelly: The Obsessive Quest for the World Record Largemouth Bass

Anyone who has ever fished the Vinyard Derby should read Dave Kinneys book. This is fireside reading for surfcaster and boatman alike and well worth a read.

Frank Daignault, author of Striper Surf

Though it will probably be shelved in either the sports or outdoors section, Kinneys account would be right at home in the anthropology department. The book is a lot of fun as Kinneys day-in, day-out descriptions of the tournament itself play out like a frenzied baseball season condensed into one month of triple-headers.

Publishers Weekly

The author looks beyond Marthas Vineyards reputation as a summer hangout for the fabulously wealthy to capture its salty roots, motley inhabitants and resident anglers, viewing them through the portal of a fishing derby. With solid prose, Kinney nails the character of this spirited community and its defining anima, the striped bass.

Kirkus Reviews

Fans of you-are-there accounts of sporting competitions will definitely want to read this one.

Booklist

David Kinney has written for The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Associated Press, and The Star-Ledger of Newark, New Jersey, where he worked on the team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2005. He lives with his family outside Philadelphia. While he currently ranks among the 90 percent of fishermen who catch 10 percent of the fish, hes working to change that.

www.davidkinney.net

An Island, an Obsession,
and the Furious Pursuit
of a Great Fish

David Kinney

Copyright 2009 by David Kinney

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Scanning, uploading, and electronic distribution of this book or the facilitation of such without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the authors rights is appreciated. Any member of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or anthology, should send inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 or permissions@groveatlantic.com.

All photos are courtesy of the author except: Prologue photo courtesy of Jen Wlodyka; chapter 7 photo courtesy of Janet Woodcock; chapter 8 photo courtesy of Kib Bramhall; chapter 10 photo courtesy of Lisa Vanderhoop; chapter 11 photo courtesy of David Skok; chapter 12 photo courtesy of Patrick Jenkinson; chapter 13 photo courtesy of Ben Scott.

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-0-8021-9999-7 (e-book)

Grove Press
an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
841 Broadway
New York, NY 10003

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