Customer Reviews

Hunter

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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have read many contemporary Australian novels in the past few years, and this was one of the most interesting. Its immediate subject is the search for a living specimen of the apparently extinct thylacine or Tasmanian `tiger'. The main character, Martin David or M, has been hired by biotechnological interests to secure a living specimen of the thylacine which he can then kill and clone. As he searches for the animal, he is confronted with an unexpected obstacle: the domesticity represented by Lucy Armstrong, the woman with whom he is lodging, and her two odd children Bike and Sass. Jarrah Armstrong, the husband and father of the family, has vanished in the same mountains where M is pursuing his quarry; M feels a double identification with Jarrah as he faces the same risks in the wild as did his predecessor. In addition he feels the danger, or the promise, of being co-opted into Jarrah's domestic role. Though M is attracted to Lucy and has warm feelings for the children, he warily holds on to his own male solitude, an allegiance also figured in his response to the femininity of the last thylacine itself. This is a vivid, compelling narrative whose significance does not just reside in its own details. It clearly is an allegory of `globalization', where M is the metropolitan outsider seeking to exploit the environment, and the nature and people of Tasmania represent a local particularity in danger of being absorbed into the global. The paradox here is that the global cannot operate without the content, the materiality, provided by the local. So M and the global concerns he represent NEED Tasmania, and the thylacine, even as they try to exploit it for the purposes of the global machine. The writing here is so vividly pictorial that these intellectual issues never tower above the novel's exciting plot. They are there for those who are interested, but on its own strength Julia Leigh's novel is a gripping read full of both adventure and mystery.

Those who say this book resonates long after they have finished it are correct, but it resonates because its message is so bleak, even hopeless. And one suspects that the author is intentionally playing with the reader here by turning "quest fiction" on its head to make a point about those who would not only despoil Nature for profit, but make a conscious decision to sacrifice compassion and the essence of humanity in the process.

Martin David, which may or may not be his real name, is in search of the thylacine, a Tasmanian tiger which may be extinct. In no sense of the word a "hero," Martin is being highly paid by a corporation to find the last tiger and to extract the DNA which can be used to clone it, and he is so obsessed with fulfilling his mission that he becomes virtually a hunting machine, being referred to not by his name, but simply as M. During days that he is not hunting, however, he stays with the Armstrong family, dysfunctional since the disappearance of the father, Jarrah Armstrong, and we see some niggling traces of humanity as M begins to respond to the two wonderful, resilient Armstrong children, desperately in need of his help.

In other "quest fiction," such as Faulkner's The Bear, we can distinguish between hunter and prey and gain some enlightenment about the role of man in the universe by observing the hunter's respect for his prey as it grows during the duration of the hunt. Here, however, the edges are blurred. Our view of whether M or the thylacine is really the hunter changes, as does our understanding of which is the more ruthless, and which, if either, triumphs during the hunt. Though the prose is brutally compelling and the sense of drama very high, the message here feels like a message, and it is very grim. This reader wished that it were the M's of this world who were extinct. Mary Whipple

I purchased this book for the thylacine angle - I've been fascinated with this possibly extinct creature with childhood and try to gobble up any and all information about it. From that perspective, reading this book is a disappointment. The thylacine isn't the subject of this book, but rather, as the title implies, it is about "The Hunter." The thylacine is just an excuse. As for the book, I felt that it was mediocre at best. The background reasoning for the story - a biotech company that wants the thylacine, or its parts, for some reason -is basically superfluous and remains unexplained. As an exploration of the hunter's psyche, the book is somewhat successful, and the author did a fair job of conveying the flora and fauna of the region. By far the biggest disappointment, though, was the ending. Not merely because I'm a thylacine enthusiast, but as a reader of fiction. If during reading the novel, one imagined the worst possible scenarios for how the book was to end, I doubt that you could come up with one so bleak, depressing, and mortifying.

This short novel pulls no punches. It is beautifully written, and I note that the author has received praise from no less than Don DeLillo: "a strong and hypnotic piece of writing". Leigh's descriptions of the Tasmanian wilderness transport the reader into another world. Haven't read a survival story - physical, emotional, ecological - like it.

Fascinating, but grim. M, the hunter, overcomes physical pain and emotional distraction to focus on his prey, the legendary Tasmanian Tiger, thought to be extinct. M is the modern world although he ironically considers himself a natural man. He is a mercenary who divests himself of all moral concerns in his zeal to succeed. The tiger, like Blake's tiger, is a mystery whose demise is as certain as such outdated sentiments as compassion and fidelity. What we are becoming relentlessly stalks what we once were.

Julia Leigh has succeeded in one thing with this book: she leaves a lasting image on the reader. Everything--from writing in present tense to giving her main character only a letter for a name--suggests she's more poet than novelist and definitely more neo than classical. While development goes from fascinating to creepy, the reader can't help but read, read, read...and you just can't escape. It's like a train wreck--you just can't look away.

The story of the hunting of a Tasmanian Tiger. An absolutely outstanding and satisfying description of the unique Australian bush. Top notch. This is the sort of novel that most of us nature-lovers probably wish we could write.
Yet, within this setting the generally jaded and broken characters are trapped and without much free will. As harsh and unforgiving as the Aussie bush itself?? As trapped and hunted as the very Tasmania Tiger? These various characters made for an interesting, unexpected theme. A short novel and easily read. It has just this year in 2011 been made into a film. I liked it although I enjoyed the treatment of the Tasmanian Tiger subject more in 'Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf'.

I am intrigued by the thylacine and cryptozoology. I was very interested in a fictitious book about the possibility of this animal still being alive, and a hunter trying to catch it. Unfortunately, that's only used as a backdrop for the real story, about the hunter.

When I first received this book I was surprised at the brevity of it. It is paperback and 170 pages long. It took me all of three hours to finish it. The bulk of this book has nothing to do with thylacines. I would estimate maybe 30 pages worth of material has any mention of the animal. The main plot revolves around Leigh's "hero" and his emotional problems. I use the term "hero" in quotes because he's not really a hero, unless you consider someone who is trying to terminate the last animal of an otherwise extinct species the hero. He kills numerous animals in this book for sport and boredom. The main plot revolves around his time living with a severely depressed woman and her two crazy children. Leigh tries hard to tie this into the subject by having the woman's husband supposedly killed by a thylacine. What's worse, is that Leigh doesn't really seem to know how men think, and tries to write her male character by having him express his stereotypical sexual interests over and over, which have nothing to do with the story.

If you're looking to buy this book because you're interested in thylacines or hunting, I would definitely stay away and just browse the Internet instead, you will find it much more interesting. Overall, I was very upset to be mislead into thinking I was buying a fictitious book about thylacines as opposed to what I got: a poorly characterized novella that tries to explore a relationship of a hunter and goes nowhere.

"The Hunter" is nothing special. "The Last Thylacine" 2005 by Terry Domico ISBN 1883385156 is a far better book. "The Hunter" is a book that is annoying in that it is written in present tense entirely. For example "The woman marches over and slaps Sass in the face." (page 88). I prefer the past tense style, "The woman marched over and slapped Sass in the face." Perhaps this is just a personal preference, but I could not overcome that style with "The Hunter.' A book has to be very well written to over that style preference for me, and "The Hunter" is not.

The story is about a "special agent" kind of guy M who is assigned to find a Tasmanian Tiger. There is very little about the Tiger, and more about the hunter M. He encounters and occasionally stays with a sick family where the mom, Lucy is nearly catatonic and the two kids, Sass and Bike, are running rampant. The husband/dad is missing. The interactions with the family add nothing to the overall story of the hunt. The children come to a bad end which is a lot like the rest of this short novel.

The hunter also encounters some government reps who are basically stoned slackers. What was the point of that? The town people are witless dunderheads who are mostly all drunk. There are no positive characters at all. Is that what Tasmanian people are really like? I doubt it.

In the end the hunter does eventually find and kill the Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacine) and then dissects the body for the blood/parts he wants, burns the corpse, and buried the rest. It is implied over and over that this is the very last specimen of the Tasmanian Tiger. So I wondered why the big conglomo company that hired the hunter would not want the beast alive, intact, and whole? But not much is explained as to rational or logical reasons.

Well, anyway, the book is just moderately entertaining and nothing special.

As interesting as the story is, The Hunter, I felt, was poorly written. The main caracter's mission is hazy at best, his location is never mentioned (they never say he's in Tasmania, the only clue is references to Tasmanian tigers and devils), and his prey itself, the Thylacine, is not mentiond until almost half way through the book. the book jacket says he is employed by a biotech company, but that also is never mentioned in the text. I puchased this book because I have an acedemic interest in Thylacinus Cynocephalus, the Tasmaninan tiger or thylacine, but the book gave little information on the creature, only loosley describing it's appearance. I would describe the writing in the book mediocre at best, but the story is half-decent. Due to the poor writing style, I feel that The Hunter is doomed.