Customer Reviews

Jenny Willow: A Novel

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Live your own life, for you will die your own death

This is chiseled on a grave stone in the book, Jenny Willow by Mike Gaddis and is the pivotal point for the human characters in the book.

On the surface, the story is about an elderly widower who decides to train one more English Setter to hunt grouse before he dies.

However, it is much deeper than that - it is a story about an individual who is true to his own nature and feeds his love of dogs, hunting, nature. He manages to have a loving marriage, close friends, earn a living and be true to the essence of his avocation. It also is about a life long friend, voluntarily fulfilling the bonds and promises of friendship at the end of life.

Finally, it is about the rhythm of the Earth, the call of nature, man's abilty to age with grace and love.

Through the book the little tri-color setter, Jenny Willow, stitches the story together, just like she would stitch the undercover looking for a grouse.

"Live your own life, for you will die your own death" applies to everyone. Are we doing what we love? Are we true to our nature? Do we meet our own expectations? Do we stitch together relationships to last a lifetime? At the end our our days, will we still take joy our lives?

Give the book a read and a thought beyond the story line. It is not "just another dog story."

For someone looking for a book to learn how to train bird dogs or information on how to hunt the ruffed grouse, this is not the book.

This is a book to sit down and savor how a beautiful little tri-colored English Setter and her master interacted over the last years of the man life. Jenny, was the "fountain of youth for her master, Ben.

There are passages that will make, "a grown man cry." Any person who has owned good hunting dog will enjoy this book.

Don't miss the enjoyment of reading this excellent novel.

Mike Gaddis has caught the mood of many things in this beautiful novel: with a poetic narrative and believable dialogue, he has outlined the life of a dog in relation to the human lives she touches. First, there is Ben Willow, yearning for another pup to train and hunt and still grieving the death of his beloved wife. In quick succession, we meet his best friend, his daughter, some local characters and a caring family with a son about to embark on his own set of adventures. All of these center upon the dog, and the description of her reaction to things rings true, from her first discovery of curious things to her instinctive response to the call of her senses.
The language of the book is wonderfully descriptive, recalling mind-pictures of nature seen, smelled and sensed. The reader is swept up into the story line, impatient to turn the page. There is a small glitch in the center of the book, a confusing description of local politics, but one can forgive this in a first novel, especially when it is overshadowed by so much of the book that works.
The only problem with this book is one encountered before, the inability to put it down for a moment before reaching the satisfying conclusion.

If you love bird dogs and upland bird hunting you will enjoy this book. This book is my all time favorite book about bird hunting and it was very hard to put this book down. I cannot wait for other books on this topic from Author Mike GAddis. A must have for your collection!!

To me this is more a story of each knowing his own mortality...about friendship, trust and love engendered by a gundog...I cried and I also laughed out loud reading this book which I completed in a day because I simply could not put it down.
Any one who has had the privilege to sit on a mountain side in the company of a bird dog will understand this novel.

All the hunters in my family read and loved this book - although not a training book but the love between a dog and man is clearly defined. If you loving hunting and especially with a bird dog you will love this book.

Jenny Willow is the last hunting dog owned by Ben Willow, a taciturn, curmudgeonly West Virginian. Ben abandoned his career, and at times his family, to hunt grouse in the mountains. Now a widower, he takes on one last project, finishing a remarkable setter.

Mike Gaddis has the hunting and dog work down to a tee. He doesn't miss. He even manages a bit of the age old argument of bells versus beeper collars as a way to track a gun dog in the fielf. Ben would prefer the anachronistic tools of the trade, but his advanced age has him surrender to the modern. The rich lore of wingshooting or hunting tales has waned in the face of the barrage of gun control and the politically correct. Along with some recent books released by Wilderness Adventures (Brag Dog comes to mind)and David Gutterson's latest, we might be witnessing a minor resurgence in hunting literature

What Gaddis does not handle well are the emotions of his characters. This is the cryingest bunch since Charles Dickens penned some of his overblown characters. There is also a tedious sidetrack about getting it over on a small town blowhard that is confusing and unnecessary. And the sexual habits of septugenarians is not in my top ten literary pursuits.

A tough editor could have tightened this book into a minor classic.