A Hunter's Road: A Journey With Gun and Dog Across the American Uplands

Having originally read this delightful book when it was first published in the early 90's, I recently reread it and enjoyed it just as much. The title is listed incorrectly here as the actual title is "The Hunter's Road", but I'm new to the Library Thing and do not yet know how to make or suggest a correction.

I suspect that the some of the initial reviewers may have pointed out the similarity of the concept with John Steinbeck's "Travels with Charlie" written about 50 years ago: Man and dog travel across America in a camping vehicle. As the title suggests, however, Fergus travels to hunt game birds, specifically upland birds such as quail, pheasant, and grouse as opposed to waterfowl such as ducks and geese. Generally he hunts with show more others with local knowledge, and some of his hunting companions are famous and/or wealthy, but others are everyday working people. Most of them are male but not all.

Many non-hunters would enjoy this book since Fergus spends many more words describing people, hunting dogs, and the surrounding land than the actual hunt and more words describing cooking and eating the birds than actually killing them. He does not shy from the reality that the blood is on his hands, however, not on the hands of some assembly line worker who slaughters meat for the rest of us. Fergus has no illusions that his book will change opinions of anti-hunters, and neither do I.

I envy Jim Fergus, not so much for the hunting opportunities (I'm an avid fisherman but only rarely hunt) but for the opportunities to hang out with people such as artist/writer Russell Chatham, well known writer of poetry, fiction and nonfiction, Jim Harrison, and novelist Richard Ford. I think I have read most everything these three men have written, and a print of a Chatham painting hangs in my dining room. Fergus describes his hunt and conversation with each of these near their homes in the West. He hunts with other writers as well but is disappointed that a hunt with Annie Proulx in New England does not take place as he had hoped.

There is much humor in the "The Hunter's Road", much of it at the author's expense. Fergus is self-effacing about his missed shots, tendency to get lost both on the road and in the woods, and his share of typical human imperfections, but he is a thoughtful, sensitive man. Years later, he wrote a follow-up titled "The Sportsman's Road" in which he covered some of same American ground but this time with a fishing rod as well as a shotgun. We encounter some of the same characters, at least one of whom has aged alarmingly to the author's eyes. He has published a couple of novels as well, the best known is "One Thousand White Women", and I have enjoyed reading all of these. show less