Facing the Hunter:Reflections on a Misunderstood Way of Life

[Michael.stogre]

One of Canada's finest writers, David Adams Richards, is also a dedicated hunter. This is a celebration of, and a lament for, a passing way of life.

Here is an excerpt from the book that should whet
your appetite for a good read from a fellow hunter
born and raised in the Miramichi region of New Brunswick.

"The old grown wood stretched out for miles above us, grey and solemn, where now and again in the far
off distance we would hear the sharp report of a .308
or the dull, heavy pack of a .306. This was the wood
I had heard about all my life. It was older that I was
by 2000 years, and it looked upon me from its advantage as nothing more than a lonely passerby.
It had heard Native boys as young as me 1200 years
before. It had heard the sounds of men in winter stalking game in the year 915...

The woods had secret places that laid the framework
for the template of my life.

-----from Facing the Hunter

He also wrote "Mercy among Children," called a masterpiece by the Washington Post...

[Cyclonic]

Looks like some good reading. I will check this out.

[VixChix]

Thanks for the recommendation! Sounds like it's something Tim & I both would enjoy. I'll go look for it.

[ninepointer]

I received the book for Christmas. Just started it, but I liked it when Richards wrote that everyone who eats meat should be required at least once in their life to kill, butcher and cook an animal.

[TPM]

Just finished reading some on-line reviews. Sounds like a great book. He pulls no punches. Will have to add this one to the winter reading list for sure!

[Dash]

I received the book for Christmas. Just started it, but I liked it when Richards wrote that everyone who eats meat should be required at least once in their life to kill, butcher and cook an animal.

Too right mate, It would do a lot of people good to realize that thier meat wasn't grown on a supermarket shelve.

[GaryM]

I think it would just produce thousands of new vegetarians. Gary

[papa bear1]

I think it would just produce thousands of new vegetarians. Gary

[ ]

[Kelley]

Not available in States. Guess I will have someone to purchase it for me up your way.
Kelley

[maple]

He aslo wrote 'Lines in the Water', a Nova Scotia culture/salmon fishing book. Another great read.

Maple

[Michael.stogre]

Here is another description of this work taken from
Amazon.com that seems to carry this book.


Book Description
Publication Date: October 18, 2011
David Adams Richards takes us behind his gun and into the Canadian forest for his most powerful work of non-fiction yet.

In his brilliant non-fiction, David Adams Richards - first and foremost one of Canada's greatest and best-beloved novelists - has been writing a kind of memoir by other means. Like his previous titles Lines On Water, about his pursuit of angling, and Hockey Dreams, about the game his disabled body prevented him from playing, Facing the Hunter explores the meaning of a sport and the way in which it touches lives, not least that of the author. And as with God Is, his recent book about his faith, it is also an impassioned defence of a set of values and a way of life that Richards believes are under attack.

Lovers of David Adams Richards' novels will be fascinated and enlightened to note the interplay between his former life as a keen hunter - he hunts less and less these days, as he explains - and the narratives and characters of his fiction. But this is also a perfect starting point for anyone coming new to Richards. The storytelling in this book, the evocation of the Canadian wild and those who venture into it, the sheer power of the prose, show a great writer at the height of his powers.
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