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January 2, 2019
I’m not a hunter and I don’t like animal stories, yet this book grabbed me and I thought it was an excellent short read. (150 pages in a fairly large font.)
In his home country, the German author (age 96 in 2019) is a well-known journalist and a producer of documentaries on environmental issues, especially the loss of habitat to animals.
So we have alternating chapters focusing on a wealthy big-game hunter and a bear. Other than a Eastern European hunting guide who writes to the man to get him interested in hunting a giant bear, the bear is as much of a main character as the man. The bear doesn’t “think” but we watch him follow his instincts hunting, foraging, navigating, sleeping, hiding. The East European country rations trophy hunting, charging wealthy people as much as $40,000 to hunt a prize animal. Little by little is led by food to hang out at a hunting blind, waiting for the hunter to have a perfectly staged shot.
Our wealthy man is a true Master of the Universe. He an international financial consultant, the type who flies around the world attending financial meetings where demonstrators protest. His passion is hunting – he owns three custom-made guns worth $50,000. He’s single; twice-divorced, and his true love, his second wife, was a hunter too; in fact she was a better shot then he was, and she had more animal head trophies than he did. (Giving entirely new meaning to the phrase “trophy wife” lol.)
The hunter is not just a hot shot looking for trophy heads. He has a great respect for the rules of hunting and the dignity of the animal, which he believes separates “a hunter from a butcher.” And he detests the idea of hunting as “a hobby.” His old bear has returned to the area of its birth because it was driven out by economic development.
A good read.
Painting of the author by Richard Holt at https://richild-holt.de/portfolio/hor...
Photo of one of the 45 remaining bears that live in the Tatra Mountians on the border of Poland and Slovakia from polandscience.pap.pl
In his home country, the German author (age 96 in 2019) is a well-known journalist and a producer of documentaries on environmental issues, especially the loss of habitat to animals.
So we have alternating chapters focusing on a wealthy big-game hunter and a bear. Other than a Eastern European hunting guide who writes to the man to get him interested in hunting a giant bear, the bear is as much of a main character as the man. The bear doesn’t “think” but we watch him follow his instincts hunting, foraging, navigating, sleeping, hiding. The East European country rations trophy hunting, charging wealthy people as much as $40,000 to hunt a prize animal. Little by little is led by food to hang out at a hunting blind, waiting for the hunter to have a perfectly staged shot.
Our wealthy man is a true Master of the Universe. He an international financial consultant, the type who flies around the world attending financial meetings where demonstrators protest. His passion is hunting – he owns three custom-made guns worth $50,000. He’s single; twice-divorced, and his true love, his second wife, was a hunter too; in fact she was a better shot then he was, and she had more animal head trophies than he did. (Giving entirely new meaning to the phrase “trophy wife” lol.)
The hunter is not just a hot shot looking for trophy heads. He has a great respect for the rules of hunting and the dignity of the animal, which he believes separates “a hunter from a butcher.” And he detests the idea of hunting as “a hobby.” His old bear has returned to the area of its birth because it was driven out by economic development.
A good read.
Painting of the author by Richard Holt at https://richild-holt.de/portfolio/hor...
Photo of one of the 45 remaining bears that live in the Tatra Mountians on the border of Poland and Slovakia from polandscience.pap.pl
Displaying 1 of 1 review