Hunting in the Dark

by William Burleson

A hundred and fifty miles north of Minneapolis and maybe fifty feet above the rapids on the Black River, Paul and his high school friends are far from the prying eyes of their parents. They celebrate their freedom and their youth with little caution and few concerns. Blood brothers without the mess; friends for life. But youth is short lived, and rich and poor, urban and rural, their paths are destined to be very different. This coming of age story asks: how does privilege, circumstance, and blind luck govern our fate? And what risks are we willing to take along the way? Hunting in the Dark is the fifth title available in the flash novel series from Bartleby Snopes Press.

Unknown Binding

First published September 21, 2014

About the author

William E Burleson’s writing spans several forms and genres. His debut novel, Ahnwee Days (2024 Blackwater Press) is the story of a small town that has seen better days and the mayor who tries to save it. Burleson’s literary fiction short stories have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies to date, including in The New Guard and American Fiction. The book, Tales of Block E, three connected short stories, was published in 2017.

Burleson has also been published extensively in non-fiction. Burleson is the author of the book, Bi America (Rutledge Press in 2005), an exploration of the bisexual experience. In the past, he was a regular contributor for Hennepin History Magazine, lavender Magazine, the Lambda Book Report, and other periodicals. He has also been a contributor to various academic publications.

Lastly, Burleson is the founding publisher at Flexible Press, Minneapolis, publisher of fine literary fiction.

Reviews

[Brian Duren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bill Burleson’s “flash novel,” "Hunting in the Dark," opens with a scene at night, in which the main character, Paul, and his three male friends, all of them about sixteen years old, are sitting around a fire, drinking beer and smoking dope, a short distance from a one-room cabin in a woods, about 150 miles north of Minneapolis. Jesse, another friend, walks “out of the woods, out of the dark, into the campfire light,” helps himself to a beer and sits down on the same log as Paul. Neither Paul nor any of his friends seem surprised by Jesse’s sudden appearance. Indeed, Jesse appears and disappears with the elusiveness of a ghost in each of the five chapters.
Paul asks Jesse where he has been, and Jesse says, “Huntin.’” Baffled, Paul asks how he can hunt in the dark, and Jesse says, “I’m part Indian” and claims to be able to see in the dark. Paul doesn’t believe him, observing that Jesse looked Scandinavian, with “long blonde hair, wisp of a proto-beard, and a pinkish complexion,” and the reader doesn’t believe him either. Nevertheless, Paul asks him what kind of Indian, and Jesse says, “The savage kind,” tossing a lit roach into his mouth and washing it down with a swig of beer. How could a teenager not be blown away by someone with that kind of panache?
Jesse reigns over Paul. He calls him “kid,” even though they are the same age and would both be high school students, if Jesse hadn’t decided that he “’don’t need no school.’” Paul lives “in a big city filled with experiences,” while Jesse lives “on the edge of a tiny town with his parents and seven brothers and sisters in a house no better than a shack.” The reader sees immediately that Jesse doesn’t have much to look forward to, but Paul, our first-person narrator, is in awe of him. He says about Jesse that “things didn’t just happen to him, he happened to things.” And we see, at the end of this first chapter, just how Jesse happens to things, when he takes Paul hunting in the dark and drives his father’s 70 Ford Bronco down an overgrown logging trail and smashes it into a tree.
In the four following chapters, Paul gets his act together, earns a degree in Art History, becomes a businessman, owner of five coffee shops, and gets married, while Jesse descends into ever-greater insecurity, isolation, and misery. Jesse always blames someone else for the horrible things that happen in his life. He lies to his friends and deceives himself, but nearly everyone—including the reader—sees through the lies and self-deceptions. We also see that Jesse from the beginning was a vulnerable character, who tried to conceal his vulnerability behind his posing and his lies. Burleson’s extraordinary accomplishment is to make the reader feel the pain of Jesse’s gradual descent.
I highly recommend "Hunting in the Dark."

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book brought me right back to the late 1970s and early '80s, the time in which it is set. The writer has used detail of clothing, culture, and dialog to remind me of this time that I lived through and remember well, and he gets it absolutely right. His knack for detail also creates a place I could visualize and characters that I believed. I could almost hear them talking. I loved watching them evolve and grow up over the course of just a few years, the years when kids must make the transition to adults. None of the kids in the story come from a life of ease, but most of them make their way. One of the characters has a harder time than his friends making the transition. I won't spoil the story for others by revealing here whether he succeeds or not, but I will disclose that whenever he made an appearance in the story, I began to worry. He made me uncomfortable, yet I wanted him to "make it" like his friends. The writer has created complicated characters whose life trajectories are rooted in their socioeconomic status, their geographies, family support or lack of, and their unique personalities. I was amazed that he could make me care about the fate of 5 partying, immature boys and show their growth in fewer than 40 pages.

[Barbara Jeanetta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. The dialogue was well crafted and brought the characters to life. Bill depicted the friendships and relationships among a group of friends despite their life differences. I look forward to more Burleson fiction.