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Wardlaw Books
The Deer Pasture
Rick Bass's first collection of essays captures the clear, passionate voice of this acclaimed author at the very beginning of his career. In The Deer Pasture , Rick Bass writes about a family tradition: each year, for more than fifty years, three generations of men in the Bass family have leased the same tract of land in the Texas hill country. More than a place to stalk the white-tail, this is a place to get together, chase armadillos, swap campfire stories, listen to quail, make biscuits, and enjoy the antics of ringtails. It's the sort of place where a man is only as good as his dog, where memories last longer, where the hunter's moon is the perfect light for chasing raccoons. Most important, it is a place to recharge the spirit and renew family ties.
136 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
123 people want to read
About the author
Rick Bass
117 books482 followersRick Bass was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and grew up in Houston, the son of a geologist. He studied petroleum geology at Utah State University and while working as a petroleum geologist in Jackson, Mississippi, began writing short stories on his lunch breaks. In 1987, he moved with his wife, the artist Elizabeth Hughes Bass, to Montana’s remote Yaak Valley and became an active environmentalist, working to protect his adopted home from the destructive encroachment of roads and logging. He serves on the board of both the Yaak Valley Forest Council and Round River Conservation Studies and continues to live with his family on a ranch in Montana, actively engaged in saving the American wilderness.
Bass received the PEN/Nelson Algren Award in 1988 for his first short story, “The Watch,” and won the James Jones Fellowship Award for his novel Where the Sea Used To Be. His novel The Hermit’s Story was a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year in 2000. The Lives of Rocks was a finalist for the Story Prize and was chosen as a Best Book of the Year in 2006 by the Rocky Mountain News. Bass’s stories have also been awarded the Pushcart Prize and the O. Henry Award and have been collected in The Best American Short Stories.
Bass received the PEN/Nelson Algren Award in 1988 for his first short story, “The Watch,” and won the James Jones Fellowship Award for his novel Where the Sea Used To Be. His novel The Hermit’s Story was a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year in 2000. The Lives of Rocks was a finalist for the Story Prize and was chosen as a Best Book of the Year in 2006 by the Rocky Mountain News. Bass’s stories have also been awarded the Pushcart Prize and the O. Henry Award and have been collected in The Best American Short Stories.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
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December 23, 2019Did a review of this book here: https://youtu.be/Vib1sfW9nC4
January 7, 2024
Absolutely amazing. Up there as one of the best books I've read in a while. This book just oozes with an infectious love of a place and the memories that make it. Its like sitting there listening to someone describe every facet of something they love. Doubling back onto previous discussions, getting to the point in the narrative and preempting the "but why?" rebuttal.
For me there is something impactful about the juxtaposition of the 'timelessness' of traditions but at the same time the realization traditions can, with births, marriages, and especially deaths, profoundly change. The Deer Pasture was definitely one for me.
For me there is something impactful about the juxtaposition of the 'timelessness' of traditions but at the same time the realization traditions can, with births, marriages, and especially deaths, profoundly change. The Deer Pasture was definitely one for me.
February 21, 2024
I bought this because Bass has a new book coming out and I want sure I actually liked him, so I picked up some earlier writing. I fucking loved it. I love it when someone can write and uses their talent to write about the outdoors. This is great because it is all about a specific place he knows and loves, and he’s been hunting it with his family forever.
Two main things to capture for my memory:
1. I dog eared pages (am going through a stack of physical books vs kindle and this wasn’t even available on kindle.). Fantastic section on how you push yourself when you are younger not as a prize but to know yourself and your limits. I love his humility and how we cracks things open like this.
2. This is a book about hunting and hanging out with family. It stirred up tons of memories of places:
- Hansen’s cabin and the smell of cigars and how cold it would be by 3am.
- coon hunting with Hansen
- sleeping in Grandpa Franc’s basement before a hunt (we never did develop a fixed place besides Hampton Inn eventually)
- the Bagley farm, especially thinking of the buildings with antlers nailed above the door and sleeping in Dave’s camper
- imagining Grandpa Vernie at the Buckboards with pancakes stuffed in his pockets (much like these guys)
- the Keranen farm and the adrenaline when Mick got around a dead deer
- November 16 birthday for that guy at the end, just like Caleb basically born on the opener. I broke tradition by moving away but that’s ok. Even Rick eventually got into a routine of visiting this land only 3-4x per year.
Anyway lots of memories stirred up and I like his writing enough here to check out more of his stuff. Especially the part about a girl being important enough to bring to the pasture in spring.
Two main things to capture for my memory:
1. I dog eared pages (am going through a stack of physical books vs kindle and this wasn’t even available on kindle.). Fantastic section on how you push yourself when you are younger not as a prize but to know yourself and your limits. I love his humility and how we cracks things open like this.
2. This is a book about hunting and hanging out with family. It stirred up tons of memories of places:
- Hansen’s cabin and the smell of cigars and how cold it would be by 3am.
- coon hunting with Hansen
- sleeping in Grandpa Franc’s basement before a hunt (we never did develop a fixed place besides Hampton Inn eventually)
- the Bagley farm, especially thinking of the buildings with antlers nailed above the door and sleeping in Dave’s camper
- imagining Grandpa Vernie at the Buckboards with pancakes stuffed in his pockets (much like these guys)
- the Keranen farm and the adrenaline when Mick got around a dead deer
- November 16 birthday for that guy at the end, just like Caleb basically born on the opener. I broke tradition by moving away but that’s ok. Even Rick eventually got into a routine of visiting this land only 3-4x per year.
Anyway lots of memories stirred up and I like his writing enough here to check out more of his stuff. Especially the part about a girl being important enough to bring to the pasture in spring.
January 12, 2015
"In a series of skillful, easy sketches, Rick Bass evokes the place in the Texas hill country where the men in his family have come every year for forty-nine years. Hunting is the thread that runs through the narrative, but the heart of this book is a young man's love for the land."
~~back cover
And love for his family. And a testimony to the process of growning up, of becoming a man, and a subtle documentary of Southern culture.
I've always been opposed to hunting. It seemed to me to be brutal and unnecessary, a pale echo of the orgy of slaughter that took place in the 1700s and 1800s. But when I was surveying up in the Sierras for the Forest Service, I'd come across hunting camps, sometimes cabins, and think how wonderful it would be to spend time in them, even live in them. And how glorious to spend your days in the forest, although not with the purpose of killing a deer, not with the purpose of getting a trophy for your wall. Rick Bass takes you with him into the woods, and transforms the experience into a bonding with the land, an exploration into yourself; a knowledge purchased by long hours of patience and silence, by misses and near misses and spectacular wins. Not every hunter understands the subtler reasons why he (or she) enjoys hunting, or that it's much more than a sport. But Rick Bass does, and he'll let you in on the secret if you read this book.
~~back cover
And love for his family. And a testimony to the process of growning up, of becoming a man, and a subtle documentary of Southern culture.
I've always been opposed to hunting. It seemed to me to be brutal and unnecessary, a pale echo of the orgy of slaughter that took place in the 1700s and 1800s. But when I was surveying up in the Sierras for the Forest Service, I'd come across hunting camps, sometimes cabins, and think how wonderful it would be to spend time in them, even live in them. And how glorious to spend your days in the forest, although not with the purpose of killing a deer, not with the purpose of getting a trophy for your wall. Rick Bass takes you with him into the woods, and transforms the experience into a bonding with the land, an exploration into yourself; a knowledge purchased by long hours of patience and silence, by misses and near misses and spectacular wins. Not every hunter understands the subtler reasons why he (or she) enjoys hunting, or that it's much more than a sport. But Rick Bass does, and he'll let you in on the secret if you read this book.
November 26, 2008
Gillespie County is a beautiful place. Rick Bass conveys a lot of enthusiasm and passion for the Hill Country. He is so enthusiastic and excited that there is perhaps much that he fails to describe. He is best at describing his emotions in relation to the land, like his anxious, ritualistic drive from Mississippi to the deer pasture every November, and the deer pasture's positive effects on his behavior and bearing. The book does make one eager to return to Gillespie County soon.
An easy, good-natured book.
His wife's drawings are very poor, though. She even commits the sin of portraying armadillos without tails.
An easy, good-natured book.
His wife's drawings are very poor, though. She even commits the sin of portraying armadillos without tails.
March 9, 2011
I almost gave this book 5 stars. The Deer Pasture was recommended by Greene in 50+ Best Books on Texas. It is a collection of one person's stories of his hunting experiences in the Hill Country. As the writer says though, it really isn't about the deer...it about the experiences. And this person tells it well. It made me want to join in and go hunting last night as I was reading it. It also made me consider reading more of Greene's 50+ picks.
I would recommend this book.
I would recommend this book.
January 12, 2009
Sweet. I especially liked the essay about the cousin who raised armadillos and had his nieces and nephews over for armadillo tea parties. Apparently the dillos liked to be dressed up and sit for tea with slugs and grasshoppers. Such a quick read that I felt like I was reading a book for 4th graders.
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July 22, 2010I'm halfway through this one, and wish I hadn't taken such a long hiatus from Bass' writing. He sure writes some beautiful and engaging sentences. Thoroughly enjoying this one, even though it is based on hunting in the Hill Country and I'm most decidedly not a hunter.
January 2, 2010
A great book - one of the first books that I really loved. I still re-read my favorite passages every year.
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December 27, 2016Should look at re-reading, didn't think it was that great the last time that I read it.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews