Customer Reviews

Hunter's Horn

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book captures the spirit, character, and complexities of the mountain people of eastern Kentucky better than any other I have read. The individuals are simple, strong-willed, and proud like many of the people I grew up with. The descriptions of the landscape are detailed, accurate, and compelling as I remember them. For anyone interested in a better understanding of the depth of human character explained in a very readable way, this is a terrific book

Set in rural Kentucky around WWII, this book is so good, it should replace Huckelberry Finn as "the great american novel". It is a shame that it isn't better known, but unfortunately Arnow-Simpson is thought of as a regional writer. This is a very deep book, but it also has some very funny parts. Her description of pre-consumerism country life is very detailed and insightful. She saw how the world was changing, and captured a piece of it that is now long gone. I'm not even an hunting type, and I wanted to go out and get a couple of hounds after reading this. Better even than The Dollmaker, and not half as sad. Highly Recommended!

If you've never read Harriette Arnow, or only know her through The Dollmaker, you'll be shocked at how stunning this novel is. Beautiful written, with some of the most complex and moving characters in literature.

I read this book early in school, when I took an interest in Kentucky writers.I was blown away .The book captures a snapshot in time of country life before innocence is lost.What is great is that this is not a fictional area. I grew up an hunted and fished the hills and valleys in the story. The area for the most part is still as pristene and beautiful as in the story.

What a gem of a book. Arnow captures Appalachian culture, idiom, landscape and character at a moment when the world was on the cusp of becoming much smaller. Her women are extraordinary, and their lives are the lives of real women. Her animals are stunningly well-written -- the hounds are some of the best-developed non-anthropomorphic animal characters in literature, and their place in the community is charmingly portrayed.

I do not understand why this book is not more widely known, and why it was and is not universally read in both American literature and women's studies programs.

For anyone with a mountain heritage this book is it. Years ago so hard to find . I have given many many copies . Thank you Amazon
Keith Hager
Woodbridge Va

Another book I found at a used book sale, so that it had no dust cover and was an author I had never heard of before. But the book was old and that is why I bought it. What a discovery! I loved every word, every page of this book. I have read many unusual books but this one rates number 1 on my list. It had its humorous parts but also its deep psychological parts in the way human beings react and think. I know nothing of farming or hunting or even of the southern hill people, but I found it all very interesting. A wonderful book!

**Spoilers**

This book is a complete novel from a time that we don't see anymore in fiction. The Great American Novels are dead, and I was glad I purchased this book. I liked the history of Kentucky in a transitional time period. At first I didn't give the book a chance, as it was so different. The language of the characters didn't appeal to me, but I picked the book up again, and read through it in two days. Since, I have read it three more times and will probably pick it up again. It is a great study of human nature in a unique and believable setting.

With great american novels, you have a sense of wilderness, and living off the land. The land beating down a man when he tries to conquer it, then finally rising above his/her own tragedies to learn from it. This book had all of that, but in a more complex way. If you look at the "hunting" as just that, then you miss a man's struggle with alcoholism, poverty, and belief in a higher power or God.

The book really was about Milly though, struggling with a Man that didn't do as much as he could for their own survival. You see her dealing with the children and the women in her little community. She did what she could for her children and feared for their lives throughout the novel.

It was ahead of it's time, the author writing about things that stayed behind closed doors. Things like Child birth - in a graphic, unforgiving way, so much so it was banned and pulled from the book in the first printing. I was glad they added that part back into the book as it was one of my favorite chapters.

The book ends bitterly for some of the characters, but you accept it because it fit in the over all picture of the book.

This is a great book, a book that everyone should try and read.

This book by Harriet Arnow, is a portrayal of living in the Appalachian mountains. It is a way of life that probably no longer exists. It is about a time when people were self-sufficient and a place where money was seldom seen or much needed. If you have read the Foxfire books, and liked the stories about self-sufficiency, you will enjoy this book.

I have purchased several for my father in law whom is an avid reader and he has given them away as presents so it must be a good book. I am not reading it though...