Book Review: Hunter’s Moon by Philip Caputo
Well, of course, I read his A Rumor of War in history graduate school. So, I was excited to receive a copy of Hunter’s Moon: A Novel in Stories in a giveaway hosted via Goodreads.
Not to stereotype, but I’m pretty sure I’m not Caputo’s target audience. A) I’m vegetarian B) If it were the zombie apocalypse, I’m pretty sure I would starve to death rather than hunt (and eat) one of my beloved animal friends.
But who knows what you would do in that scenario to survive? Maybe I’d be a pretty good hunter and gatherer. Which is why these stories surprised me, in much the same way as if I would become the Darryl (from Walking Dead fame) with his hunting acumen. But, even in my writerly let’s-get-a-story-from-them daydreams, I still can’t imagine shooting an animal.
Because of that, I wanted not to like this story collection.
I’m not even really a fan of general fiction. I’m a genre reader, pretty much these days.
So that’s at least two strikes. The third being that I’m getting more and more women-centric these days–way above and beyond my usual feminist beliefs. Men have had the limelight for long enough in this world.
But the writing won me over. The good old turn-of-the-phrase. Haunting, sparse, compelling me to read on.
And, because, as I’m entering into the confusing swamp of middle age, these stories all had a theme I could relate to.
I don’t know what to call it, really. A loneliness that feels like an old friend. A poignant seeking for something that will not be able to be resolved as long as we’re still sitting in the box called the human condition. A quality that reminds me of the kid that so wanted to be a child of the forest and the wild, instead of living among people, and yet was drawn indoors by the lure of sustenance, or the fear of punishment.
Of being alone, still, among all the other seven billion and counting people on this planet, taking up more and more space. And that it is, in fact, even more lonely for people like me.
It’s a transition that I haven’t come out the other side of yet. But the stories captured in Hunter’s Moon tell me that maybe I don’t have to know, yet. I can just sit with it a while, under the hunter’s moon, until the sun rises on the next part of my life. Or that the moon keeps an eternal watch on this, the end times (sans zombies).
(I received this book via a giveaway hosted by the book’s publisher/author via Goodreads.)
your review made me want to read this.
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Nice…it was an intriguing book!
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Good writing is good writing – it will win you over in the end.
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And I think too that this is good reading – to not let whatever you bring to the table get in the way of your enjoyment.
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What a heartfelt review! I thought I was going to just get a lypical, back-cover like review, but you’ve given me food for thought.
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Nice! I wrote it very early in the morning as I have a tight schedule these days. I was going to do some rewrites, but them my schedule got even more crazy, so I left it. Thanks for reading!
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It’s amazing isn’t it how alone we can feel sometimes amid so many people in a room. Your review reaches into the heart of the book’s themes.
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Yes. (This comment didn’t end up in spam.) I’m glad you liked the review!
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I am working my way through these short stories one at a time… nice review
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Thanks for reading my blog, and welcome!
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Will be interested to know what you think…
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I will post a review when I finish it 😉
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