The Everlasting Stream: A True Story of Rabbits, Guns, Friendship, and Family [Paperback]

Walt Harrington (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 14, 2004

Hailed as a Best Book of 2002 by Newsday and a Noteworthy Book by the Kansas City Star, The Everlasting Stream received glowing praise in hardcover. When Walt Harrington was first invited to spend Thanksgiving on his father-in-law's farm in rural Kentucky, he was a high-profile reporter for The Washington Post who had, over the years, developed a distaste for the archaic men who kill animals for sport. Little did he know that over the next twelve years of Thanksgiving cottontail hunts, his companions that first morning — four African-American country men and lifelong friends who seemed to have nothing in common with the white city slicker — would change not only his opinions about hunting, but also his feelings about the things that mattered to him the most. In crisp, often poetic prose that brings autumn mornings crackling to life, The Everlasting Stream shares the lessons that convinced Harrington to leave the city at the top of his career, eventually to introduce his growing son to a world of life, death, nature, and manhood that seemed more rewarding to him than his beltway existence of traffic jams and designer suits.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With humor and insight, Harrington (Crossings: A White Man's Journey into Black America) weaves several themes in his tribute to friendship and storytelling: a study of masculinity, a corrective to the belief that hunting is savage, a father-son chronicle, an ode to common folks, an examination of race, and a city mouse/country mouse fable. That he uses his African-American father-in-law's annual Thanksgiving rabbit hunts as a thread to stitch these patches together only enhances his achievement. Harrington, a white, former Washington Post Magazine writer, nicely balances analytical distance with the stories of the wisecracking, whiskey-sipping black pals of his father-in-law, who are interested in shooting the breeze as much as the cottontails. With its description of crying bears and why it's better to be "off the egg" than on (i.e., able to bag a bunny), this does for hunting what A River Runs Through It did for fly-fishing. Comparing sunrises to cleaning prey might be a stretch, but not when the prose is this beautifully tactile: for Harrington, it's feral yet transporting to "cut a rabbit's belly open on a cold day and suddenly feel its innards warm your freezing hands."
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

According to Harrington (Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), an award-winning journalist for the Washington Post Magazine and the author of Crossings, his latest work is "a hybrid, comprising journalism, memoir, and essay." Harrington tells several good hunting stories while giving readers a detailed education in the art of hunting rabbits. Interspersed throughout this thoughtful book is the author's own story of his simple beginnings and rise up the corporate ladder and his decision to give up the prestigious job to return, with his family, to a simpler life. This urban journalist also tells of his experiences with his African American father-in-law and his lifetime buddies in rural Kentucky, all against a backdrop of hunting rabbits. The question of why we hunt is explored in depth and summed up in a conversation the author had with a dinner guest. "I can't believe you killed those little bunnies," the guest said. His response: "I can't believe you ate those little bunnies without killing one." Recommended for all public and academic libraries. Scott R. DiMarco, Herkimer Cty. Community Coll., NY
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press (January 14, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802140505
• ISBN-13: 978-0802140500
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #71,420 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #55 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Hunting & Fishing > Hunting

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Three tales in one, October 1, 2002

By 

Joe Grimm (Detroit, MI, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Everlasting Stream: A True Story of Rabbits, Guns, Friendship, and Family (Hardcover)

"The Everlasting Stream" is a tale about male relationships, about self discovery and about hunting that does justice to all three subjects. While many books use one story as a vessel to carry another, this develops all three stories simultaneously and completely.

Author Walt Harrington portrays himself as a snobby Washington Post reporter who finds himself tramping around Kentucky fields, shooting rabbits with his father-in-law's hunting buddies to prove he is not above them.

Through the Thanksgiving hunts, Harrington comes to respect the men. He comes to understand himself and to wonder how he so misplaced himself. He grows up with his son and reconsiders his relationship with his late father. Through it all, he thinks deeply about the experience of hunting, turning inside out his initial revulsion to it. In the end, the hunts lead him to make a profound change in his life.

Harrington finds answers, real-life answers, and not the clear-cut, no-regrets answers of cardboard stories.

As Harrington re-evaluates his life, male friendships and hunting, you will, too. It's a journey worth taking, and Harrington is an engaging guide.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating look at life and being a man, March 11, 2003

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Everlasting Stream: A True Story of Rabbits, Guns, Friendship, and Family (Hardcover)

Having married an African-American woman, journalist Walt Harrington found himself expected to maintain the family traditions by going rabbit hunting with his father-in-law, and his friends, every Thanksgiving. At first, Walt looked down on these course, back-country men as throwbacks to an earlier, more primitive way of life. With time, though, he came to realize that these men shared a different, stronger bond than he had ever known. Unconsciously, they showed him what being a man could be all about, and he learned many lessons as he (and later him and his son) hunted rabbits in the hills of Kentucky.

This book came as quite a surprise to me. I tripped across it by accident, and am quite glad that I did. It's written in a stream-of-consciousness style, which allows the author to skip forward and backward through time, showing his development throughout. Indeed, if you are interested in men's books (such as those by Robert Bly), then I highly recommend that you get this one. It is a fascinating look at life and being a man.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tradition, friendship and hunting., December 29, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Everlasting Stream: A True Story of Rabbits, Guns, Friendship, and Family (Hardcover)

A thoughtful, beautifully written, almost poetic meditation on hunting, tradition, friendship, nature and human nature. It is ostensibly about rabbit hunting, but that is not where this book's meaning lies nor where the heart of its story is. Its story and meaning lie with the people, and Harrington writes in a voice so personal that you feel you know him and his family and friends. This is not a book for the PETA crowd, or for those who call rabbits "bunnies." If you've ever hunted, or if you understand the true nature of Nature, you'll enjoy The Everlasting Stream. (Note: This review has been written by a woman who, although she does not hunt, has shot the occasional rabbit when its depredations in her garden have become intolerable and the Hav-a-Hart trap proved ineffectual.)