Dreaming the Lion: Reflections on Hunting, Fishing, and a Search for the Wild

Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Review: In a just world, Thomas McIntyre's Dreaming the Lion would be considered a classic. While it is definitely a "hunting book" it is also literature in every sense, and superior to such curiosities as Hemingway's True at First Light.

McIntyre has hunted everywhere from the Rockies to the Arctic to Africa, not to mention his native California, whose degradation he describes movingly in the essay "Blade Hunter": "...no matter how Californian the armature of my soul may be, in the end it is insufficiently rigid to keep me here until it's all barricaded away and I am reduced to stalking Norway rats in the storm drains with the broken-off shaft of a nine-iron tipped witha fluted point knapped from a glass insulator, til all that's fit to live here is cockroaches and Keith Richards."

McIntyre's essays range from the dark to the humorous to the moving, though always free of the easy sentimentality common to lesser "hook and bullet" writers. He has not only been just about everywhere; he has read just about everything, from novels to history to biology, and thought long and hard about it all. He would never scorn the meat or trophies produced by his hunts, but his real quest is for meaning, experience , and the wild within and without.

If you are a hunter who has not read him, you will find things here that you will find nowhere else. If you are a nonhunter or even an anti-hunter who wants to understand the soul of the hunter, start here. As McIntyre says, "Welcome to the wild."

Rating:
Summary: Wild...Start search here.
Review: This wonderful book is much more than a collection of hunting and fishing stories. The author has the rare ability to take his readers with him on both his physical adventures and his philisophical journeys. These journeys delve into the heart and soul of a particular location.

The stories told here take us from familiar ground to the far corners of the planet. Each account includes well-researched observations on the local natural and cultural histories. McIntyre's interpretations of wilderness values and hunting ethics are thought-provoking and profound.

I highly recommend this book to everyone, even those who have no interest in hunting or fishing. If you enjoy visiting truly wild places, or are simply grateful that such wild places and wild beasts still exist, this book will provide much satisfaction.

Rating:
Summary: Don't Miss "Dreaming The Lion"
Review: Tom McIntyre is a writer with a distinctive voice and an exceptional talent. His style has pith and elegance -and humor and intelligence. For a couple of decades now (maybe a little more) he has written some of the best prose we have on hunting. "Dreaming The Lion" is a treasury of his finest work, and will prove a delight for every literate hunter.

This is by no means a somber book, but it is a thoughtful one. Reflecting on the prospect of hunting in his native California, McIntyre writes, "The best thing would be to hunt the country you were born into, to make it even more your home. But what if your native country is not only a place, but a time, and what if that time is past?" Not exactly the kind of bang-and- brag drivel so common to lesser hunting writers, and to an unfortunately increasing number of "sporting" publications.

"Dreaming The Lion" is a collection of choice pieces, (mostly about hunting, especially but not exclusively about big game,) connected by one-page, inter-chapter selections from an ongoing African diary. In this safari narrative McIntrye appears more as protagonist than hero; he screws up sometimes, misses badly on occasion, has his ups and downs just like we, the readers, probably would. The book's final section, the title essay in three parts, recounts another African adventure and by any fair standard must be judged one of the finest pieces of hunting writing in our time. Comparisons to Hemingway and Ruark and Capstick or anyone else are as unnecessary as they are trite. McIntyre is his own writer, speaking with his own voice in his own (for a hunting writer, not entirely fortunate) time. Enjoy him.

Rating:
Summary: Don't Miss "Dreaming The Lion"
Review: Tom McIntyre is a writer with a distinctive voice and an exceptional talent. His style has pith and elegance -and humor and intelligence. For a couple of decades now (maybe a little more) he has written some of the best prose we have on hunting. "Dreaming The Lion" is a treasury of his finest work, and will prove a delight for every literate hunter.

This is by no means a somber book, but it is a thoughtful one. Reflecting on the prospect of hunting in his native California, McIntyre writes, "The best thing would be to hunt the country you were born into, to make it even more your home. But what if your native country is not only a place, but a time, and what if that time is past?" Not exactly the kind of bang-and- brag drivel so common to lesser hunting writers, and to an unfortunately increasing number of "sporting" publications.

"Dreaming The Lion" is a collection of choice pieces, (mostly about hunting, especially but not exclusively about big game,) connected by one-page, inter-chapter selections from an ongoing African diary. In this safari narrative McIntrye appears more as protagonist than hero; he screws up sometimes, misses badly on occasion, has his ups and downs just like we, the readers, probably would. The book's final section, the title essay in three parts, recounts another African adventure and by any fair standard must be judged one of the finest pieces of hunting writing in our time. Comparisons to Hemingway and Ruark and Capstick or anyone else are as unnecessary as they are trite. McIntyre is his own writer, speaking with his own voice in his own (for a hunting writer, not entirely fortunate) time. Enjoy him.

Rating:
Summary: Ed's review of Dreaming the Lion
Review: Tom McIntyre is one of the last great storytellers. His gift with a pen places the reader right in the middle of all the action. The subject matter within the pages of this book is broad. It ranges from an account of a fantastic woodcock hunt in Ireland to the pursuit of the most dangerous African cape buffalo but never once will you loose interest. Be it his candid views of the cultures surrounding the hunt or the excitement of the actual hunt, you will leave each chapter with a better understanding and respect for both the hunter and his prey.

"Dreaming The Lion" is far from the traditional "hook and bullet" prose found in most of today's hunting publications. Rather it is perhaps more of a modern day Hemmingway approach. It is factual, adventurous and all with just the right touch of humor. All of which I found quite refreshing.

If you are a hunter "Dreaming The Lion" belongs in your library.

Ed Noonan
Member of the Outdoor Writers Assn. of American and
New York State Outdoor Writers Assn.

Rating:
Summary: Dreaming About Tom McIntyre's Africa
Review: When a writer conveys an experience he conveys something of himself. Thirty years after reading him, when I think of Robert Ruark in Africa, I remember his honesty in writing about fear and booze and his struggle to live up to his own image of what he wanted to be, as much as his insightful observations of a safari. When I think of Hemingway, the exquisite craftsmanship of "The Green Hills of Africa" is overshadowed by his chest-thumping competitiveness and dishonest self-aggrandisement.

In "Dreaming the Lion," Tom McIntyre brings all the unabashed, unapologetic masculinity you would expect in a book about hunting, but he tempers it with the thoughtful intelligence of someone who thinks about his actions and their consequences, who thinks about the world around him and his place in it. And more: he brings a refreshing mastery of the English language and a wit as quick and sharp as a skinning knife. This is a book about ideas as much as actions, written by a man who doesn't suffer fools gladly, and who sees the world he loves slowly and irrevocably vanishing. Read it and dream of Africa.