"It's a wonderful life . . ." Joy, fear, love, children, fishing, friends, and the constant writing of books are some of the elements of this revealing memoir by novelist Craig Nova. He began this book as a letter to his children but it soon became a credo, a belief in the way an American novelist can live in the modern age. He writes about falling in love with his wife, a devastating review of his first novel, the birth of his daughter, his restorative relationship with the stream and the pursuit of the elusive brook trout. He writes his daughter a letter about love and marriage on the eve of her wedding. In this book, the personal and the literary and the natural world are often inextricably intertwined. It is a drama of what goes on just beyond the surface. Foreword by Ann Beattie: "Craig Nova, one of the most distinctive voices and visionaries in American fiction, works close to the bone, but never forgets to see things from afar..."