HUNTER’S MOON: A NOVEL IN STORIES
By Philip Caputo
Fair warning to those who are disturbed by detailed accounts of hunting: there are a lot of passages depicting wildlife being stalked and killed. I think this is important for readers to know before they purchase this book; however, there’s a danger in stating this, as well. If I had realized how much of the book revolves around these things, I probably wouldn’t have read it, not because I’m squeamish or am so adamantly against hunting. It just doesn’t interest me that much. But if I hadn’t read the book, I would have missed out on deeper, more subtle storylines that I enjoyed very much.
Chapters in Hunter’s Moon: A Novel in Stories are stand-alone stories. Each can be read separately from the rest, but there are recurring characters throughout which add dimension and interest as we learn different aspects of their lives over the years.
The stories are about men, their relationships with each other and how they handle events that face them. Some of the events are violent; most of them are emotional and insightful. There are also a couple of strong women who interact with the men and how the actions of each sex affect the other.
The final chapter, or story, does not deal with hunting wildlife the way the rest of the book does, yet in my mind, it was still about the hunt – a hunt for something within each of us that is often beyond our reach.
Reviewed November 2018
House of Black and Blue 