A charming paean to the sport of bird hunting by one of the elder statesmen of the wing-shooting press. Approaching 80, Henderson began hunting and writing about it 40 years ago, and his articles still run in magazines like Gun Dot and Pointing Dog Journal. The retired lawyer and former state legislator counters the popular image of beer-swilling, potbellied louts running amok in the field. He and his North Carolina companions are of the old school of southern quail hunters, by his own accounting a ``stubborn, opinionated, backward-looking, anachronistic'' lot (which, of course, is a matter of some pride among them). But first and foremost they are gentlemen, conservators of both nature and the hunting tradition. For these traditionalists, only two breeds of bird dogs (English setters and English pointers) will do and only one birdthe bobwhite quailis worth hunting. Outside of that, the formula is simple, if old- fashioned: ``A recipe for birdhunting requires four ingredients. They are birds, dogs, guns, and guys.'' Henderson plumbs the mystery and aesthetics of the hunting experience with the knowledgeable, poetic eye of a passionate outdoorsman, recounting a lifetime of dogs, hunting buddies, covey rises, missed shots, and other misadventures with a courtly, avuncular affability that gives these loosely organized tales and observations the agreeable tenor of a fireside chat (accompanied by Shep Foley's line drawings). Though mostly a collection of odds and ends, Henderson's remembrances express a fundamental moral code that demands respect for land, people, and animals. Of particular note is the relationship between hunters and their dogsa special bond of love, discipline, and shared adventure that Henderson limns with great affection and honesty as he memorializes Spook and other canine companions. A treasurethe next best thing to a day afield for longtime hunters or newcomers to the sport.
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1995
ISBN: 1-55821-402-X
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Lyons Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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