Meat Eater: Adventures from the Life of an American Hunter

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

An exploration of hunting today by the author of American Buffalo and the host of MeatEater on the Sportsman Channel. From the #1 New York Times bestselling author and host of Netflix's MeatEater comes "a unique and valuable alternate view of where our food comes from" (Anthony Bourdain). "Revelatory . . . With every chapter, you get a history lesson, a hunting lesson, a nature lesson, and a cooking lesson. . . . Meat Eater offers an overabundance to savor."-The New York Times Book Review Meat Eater chronicles Steven Rinella's lifelong relationship with nature and hunting through the lens of ten hunts, beginning when he was an aspiring mountain man at age ten and ending as a thirty-seven-year-old Brooklyn father who hunts in the remotest corners of North America. He tells of having a struggling career as a fur trapper just as fur prices were falling; of a dalliance with catch-and-release steelhead fishing; of canoeing in the Missouri Breaks in search of mule deer just as the Missouri River was freezing up one November; and of hunting the elusive Dall sheep in the glaciated mountains of Alaska. A thrilling storyteller, Rinella grapples with themes such as the role of the hunter in shaping America, the vanishing frontier, the ethics of killing, and the disappearance of the hunter himself as consumers lose their connection with the way their food finds its way to their tables. The result is a loving portrait of a way of life that is part of who we are-as humans and as Americans.

Reviews

Its evident from Chapter 1 that we are in the hands of a seriously experienced hunter-gatherer and writer. . . . Acutely conveyed are the ways society is elbowing aside an age-old practice, often bloody and brutal, and replacing it with practices numbingly antiseptic and increasingly unreal. . . . Rinellas writing is unerringly smart, direct, and sharply detailed. . . . Each of his small-bore narratives, whether it unfolds on Michigans Upper Peninsula [or in] Montana, Alaska, Arizona, or Mexico, bristles with the magic of a specific, authentic place.The Boston Globe

As Steven Rinella is quick to point out, the hunting story is the oldest sort of story there is. Humans developed language, it is commonly held, to tell them. When told properly, as they are in Meat Eater, such stories are not simple gloats by the successful hunter around the table, proudly chewing on the biggest portion of meat and relishing the respect he has earned from his tribe by bringing back the protein. Rather, they are stories of mans relationships with his fellow hunters, his family, the land and the animals. The stories in Meat Eater are full of empathy and intelligence.The Wall Street Journal

Steven Rinella is one of the best nature writers of the last decade. . . . This book was a page-turner.Tim Ferris

Chances are, Steven Rinellas life is very different from yours or mine. He does not source his food at the local supermarket. Meat Eater is a unique and valuable alternate view of where our food comes fromand what can be involved. Its a look both backward, at the way things used to be, and forward, to a time when every diner will truly understand whats on the end of the fork.Anthony Bourdain

Meat Eater begins with a promiseThis book has a hell of a lot going for it, simply because its a hunting storyand then delivers ceaselessly, like a Dominos guy with O.C.D. This is survival of the most literate. . . . Thisgenuine passion, humbly conveyedis when nonfiction slaughters fiction and hangs it over its mantel. The text is relentlessly vivid and clear. . . . What Rinella does to prepare a muskrat trap when hes in fifth grade takes five more steps and is infinitely more loving than whatever I did as a fifth grader to break in my baseball glove.The New York Times Book Review

Rinella isan astute observer, with an eye for delightfully telling details.Paste

An insiders look at hunting that devotees and nonparticipants alike should find fascinating.Kirkus Reviews

If hunting has fewer participants and advocates than ever before, Rinella is doing his best to reverse the trend.Booklist

Woven into Rinellas thoughtful prose detailing his outdoor adventures (or misadventures, in some cases) are historical, ecological, or technical observations dealing with the landscape, the animals, or the manner in which the game is harvested. . . .Rinella has a passion for hunting and wilderness that comes across in his writing.Publishers Weekly

Author Bio

In addition to being an expert chef known for working with wild game,Steven Rinellais an outdoorsman, writer, and television and podcast personality with an exceptional ability to communicate the hunting lifestyle to a wide variety of audiences. The host of the television show and podcastMeatEater,he is also the author of two volumes ofThe Complete Guide to Hunting, Butchering, and Cooking Wild Game;Meat Eater- Adventures from the Life of an American Hunter;American Buffalo- In Search of a Lost Icon;andThe Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine. His writing has appeared in many publications, includingOutside, Field & Stream, The New Yorker, Glamour, The New York Times, Men's Journal, Salon, O- The Oprah Magazine, Bowhunter,and the anthologiesBest American Travel WritingandBest Food Writing.