Hunting from Home: A Year Afield in the Blue Ridge Mountains [Hardcover]

Christopher Camuto (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2003

Hunting from Home is the culmination of a long and thoughtful journey through the rich natural landscape of the southern Appalachians.

A vivid rendering of the four seasons on a Shenandoah Valley farm and in the Virginia mountains. Christopher Camuto has been praised for writing "with the clear-sightedness and imaginative reachboth inward and outwardof a poet" (Verlyn Klinkenborg). In Hunting from Home, Camuto takes the reader through a year of intense experiences: hunting grouse with his setter through snowbound forests in winter; wading trout streams in spring; closely observing birds and wildlife through summer; exploring the backcountry, cutting wood, and hunting deer in autumn. He takes seriouslyand joyously Thoreau's injunction to practice "the discipline of looking always at what is to be seen." Camuto writes incisively about the hunter's paradoxical love of the game he pursues; but he also hunts in the broadest sense possible, searching out and witnessing the life of the things he lovesbrook trout and black bear, hawks and warblerswith the hope of sharing the pleasures and preoccupations of a "border life" lived, with deep satisfaction, in the shadow of the Blue Ridge. 4 b/w illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this celebration of a year in the country, Camuto (A Fly Fisherman's Blue Ridge), who lives in a four-room log cabin near the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, meditates on the pleasures of nature and his place in it. Eloquently conveying the joy he takes in finding "the miraculous in the common," he writes of the passing seasons, the ever-changing landscape, and the animals and birds that inhabit the mountains and the 200-acre farm he calls home. He also spends much of his time hunting and fishing-grouse in winter, trout in early spring, deer in fall and early winter-and the hunting theme permeates the book. As he admits, it may seem incongruous that someone who loves nature so much is an avid hunter. But, he says, "Hunting has weighted my time outdoors and clarified a great deal for me, taught me innumerable practical lessons and taken me in certain dreamlike moments through the transcendental concentration of the hunt to contact with what I assume is the sacred pulse of being, my own and that of the game I pursue." Nicely covering the same poetic ground as Ted Kerasote and Rick Bass, Camuto describes days spent in the woods tracking grouse, the details of teaching himself bow hunting, or cleaning deer. Camuto's book holds many attractions: his observations about his world and its delights-the trees, the flowers, the stars, the unexpected sight of deer running through the snow on a moonlit night, the presence of Carolina wrens nesting on his front porch, the smell of newly split wood-are memorable and can hold their own with the best nature writing.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Camuto is, pound for pound, word for word, the heavyweight champion of southern nature writing."--Bloomsbury Review

"The mystery of connection lies at the heart of Hunting from Home. . . . The stealthy cadence of Camuto's prose reveals glimpses of his effort to do justice to a place and way of life that often seem just beyond his reach; hunting becomes a metaphor of how to capture the natural within the self and on the page."--New York Times Book Review

"Camuto's book holds many attractions: his observations about his world and its delights—the trees, the flowers, the stars, the unexpected sight of deer running through the snow on a moonlit night, the presence of Carolina wrens nesting on his front porch, the smell of newly split wood—are memorable and can hold their own with the best nature writing."--Publishers Weekly

"It is difficult to imagine anyone who walks on the land with greater circumspection and appreciation than Camuto."--Kirkus Reviews

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (March 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393049159
• ISBN-13: 978-0393049152
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,168,427 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Recommended for those who enjoy the outdoors, June 12, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hunting from Home: A Year Afield in the Blue Ridge Mountains (Hardcover)

Hunting From Home: A Year Afield In The Blue Ridge Mountains by Christopher Camuto is a engaging and personal memoir of hunting and fishing afield in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Written with a passionate love of, and respect for, the beauty and providence of Nature; the satisfaction of enjoying a "border life"; and offering deeply insightful thoughts on man's relationship to the natural world and his role in claiming subsistence from it without being wasteful, Hunting From Home is an engaging read and strongly recommended for those who enjoy what the outdoors has to offer, as well as "armchair travelers" through the grand hunting grounds of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing writing on deer hunting, June 14, 2009

By 

Shedder (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hunting from Home: A Year Afield in the Blue Ridge Mountains (Paperback)

I like this book a lot, in spite, of some of the faults mentioned. What I would like to add is that it has some of best passages on deer hunting that I have seen. There is almost no devotional writing on deer hunting so it is a breath of crisp fall air to see it. He has two chapters dealing with gun and bow and I would recommend them to anyone tired of the repetitive how-to drek that saps the soul.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely nature writing, April 28, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Hunting from Home: A Year Afield in the Blue Ridge Mountains (Hardcover)

This is a beautifully written book. Camuto is a modern Thoreau in that, though incredibly knowledgeable about the natural world (he knows an amazing amount about trees, flowers, birds etc.) he also has a great deal to say about life, politics, literature, ethics, all the important subjects. This is a book that will get you thinking about the way you live your life in a whole different way, and provokes interesting questions about where we humans fit in the natural scheme of things. Reading it is like a visit with an interesting person and a refreshing walk in the woods.