Call of the Mild: Learning to Hunt My Own Dinner

Despite what the title may imply, McCaulou and her writing are anything but mild. Her fortitude is obvious from the onset, when she takes a chance on herself by giving up her East Coast city life for a job writing for a small newspaper in Bend, Ore. Once there, she slowly embraces the outdoor lifestyle of her new home, first by skiing and fly-fishing, and later by exploring the hunting subculture that comes to fascinate her. Afraid of guns and wary of guts, her forays into hunting may be slow and sometimes timid, but the way she continually faces her fears is inspiring. With each new challenge—from purchasing a license and firearms safety to pulling the trigger or pulling out an elk’s intestines—she makes in-depth explorations into the cultural, economic, ecological, nutritional, and political aspects of hunting. But where McCaulou’s writing truly shines is when she analyzes her personal connection to how she kills to how she lives her life. Unafraid to lay bare her evolving “cycle of life” feelings about shooting her first bird on the day her niece was born or confronting how the recent deaths of close family members affects her emotions about hunting, McCaulou forces herself to face the best and worst of both life and death. Definitely at the top of the heap of the recent array of books that explore our connection to land and food, McCaulou confronts everything you think you know about hunting and in doing so brings a welcome touch of humanity to a pursuit thought by many to be lacking exactly that. Agent, Daniel Greenberg. (June)