The Most Dangerous Game

Shanks But No Shanks? New Hunter Memoirs Get Heavy With the Ethics

Steven Rinella, killer (and griller) of squirrels.
Steven Rinella, killer (and griller) of squirrels.

Filled with karmic ruminations and digressions on animal consciousness, a spate of new “hunter memoirs” seem to be angling to prove that people who kill animals for food have feelings, too, dammit, reports the Times. Steven Rinella, a manly champion of fricasseed squirrel and beer can sparrow, becomes one with nature when he dries jerky at home. Moral discussions abound: A practicing Buddhist turns big buck hunter after his doctor says he could use a little color in his cheeks, and elsewhere, the prose in Georgia Pellegrini’s Girl Hunter is imbued with a “Carrie Bradshaw meets Annie Oakley vibe.” The good news is that we’ve never been closer to getting a cable-TV series that gives driftless twentysomethings and entrails equal airtime. [NYT, Earlier]

Shanks But No Shanks? New Hunter Memoirs Get Heavy With the Ethics