“Bill Heavey is one of the best magazine writers in America. No, he doesn’t work for the New Yorker. He writes for Field & Stream, the popular journal for hunters and fishermen.”–Danny Heitman, Wall Street Journal
“Bill Heavey is my favorite writer. When I die, I want him to gut me, stuff me, and deliver my eulogy for one good last laugh.”–Ted Nugent
Maybe the best way to explain Bill Heavey’s writing is to note that both Ted Nugent and the Wall Street Journal–two entities rarely seen in the same sentence–like it. For more than twenty years, Heavey has staked a claim as one of America’s best sportsmen writers. In feature stories and his Field & Streamcolumn “A Sportsman’s Life,” among other publications, he has taken readers across the country and beyond to experience his triumphs and failures as a suburban dad who happens to love hunting and fishing. This new collection gathers together a wide range of his best work. He nearly drowns attempting to fish the pond inside the cloverleaf off an Interstate Highway four miles from the White House. He rents and crashes a 44-foot houseboat on a river in Florida. On a manic weeklong deer archery hunt in Ohio, he finds it necessary to practice by shooting arrows into his motel room’s phonebook (The blunt penetrates all the way to page 358, “KITCHEN CABINET–REFACING & REFINISHING.”) Accompanying a shaggy steelhead fanatic–Mikey, who has no job or fixed address but owns four boats–on a thousand-mile odyssey up and down the California coast in search of fishable water, he realizes that Mikey is a purer soul than almost anyone he has ever met. Whatever the subject, Heavey’s tales are odes to the notion that enthusiasm is more important than skill, and a testament to the enduring power of the natural world. Whether he’s hunting mule deer in Montana, draining cash on an overpriced pistol, or ruminating on the joys and agonies of outdoor gear, Heavey always entertains and enlightens with honesty and wit.
A hilarious look at outdoor life in the form of his articles for Field and Stream. He reminds me of The Outdoor Man and Dave Barry. This was one of those sitting in the deer blind telling tales kind of books and I enjoyed it!
Dec. 5th Netgalley/Atlantic Monthly Press
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