Customer Reviews

The Deer Hunter

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Basically the movie in book form. It fills in one or two holes, mainly, who's the father of Angela's baby. Also the Vietnam portion contains a couple of bits not in the movie.

This is a book based on the screenplay not the other way around so, if you've seen the movie, don't waste your money on the book.

Fantastic book, shows the great loving and close friendship between the main characters. Exemplifies the horror of Vietnam, and surviving the worst situations possible. In my opinion, much better than the movie. Contains one of the greatest endings I've ever had the pleasure of reading.

I am responding to the initial 5 star review above because this reviewer is clearly referring to a different novel also entitled Deer Hunter....but it's not the book that was written following the Vietnam themed film. Where, oh where can I find the novel referred to in the above review? It sounds like an amazing read and has in fact been mentioned to me before, but nobody can remember the author's name and the only results for Deer Hunter on the web are related to the Michael Cimino film. If this reviewer could respond, I would really appreciate it. I've been trying to locate this book for quite some time now...

This is a fictional story of an animal rights advocate who one day decides he has had enough. Hunting is an intrinsic part of our biological evolutionary makeup since we have been hunters in one way or another for over a million years. It is also true that not hunting can and does lead to starvation (only because of the lack of natural predators). But what opponents of hunting never "get" is the almost exclusively male "fun" one receives from such actions. Perhaps it is a last reach for our caveman past since one no longer must fight or tame nature to get their buck.

Our hero goes hunting...but his target is the hunter. The book is most effective in its right-on-target descriptions of the hunting culture, the special and expensive clothing, the decoys, the bragging, the thrill of the kill, the commune with nature, etc. Still, one wonders if all the elitists who sniff at hunting refrain from meat, leather, glue, tape and a host of everyday products that use parts of animals. In this story, our hero is resolute in his avoidance of animals and animal products.

In this backwoods he finds love and becomes a folk hero to some. Slowly, though, the hunter becomes the hunted and he must be more vigilant than ever. The ending is both humorous and terrifying in its implications asnd the question it asks: Do humans have the right to kill on behalf of prey? Rational people would answer with a resolute "No" but this is literature and some license must be given. This is a disturbing story that deserved a wider readership.