From the Back Story

"At the end of A River Runs Through It, Norman Maclean writes, in one of the greatest lines in American (or any) literature, 'I am haunted by waters.' Though I have interred the remains of both my parents in the sea, and that should presumably justify a haunting enough, I have, in fact, been transfixed by waters all my life, and would warrant that so was Norman Maclean. So too is The Pacific and Other Stories, though hardly by design, and though it was not on purpose, I am proud to follow after his example in this, for although I did not know him, he is someone that I truly love, and in the work he called “a love song to my family,” the tone he sought and achieved was perfect and unsurpassable . . .