You're Not Lost if You Can Still See the Truck

Starred review from September 15, 2014
Heavey (It’s Only Slow Food Until You Try to Eat It) embraces his mantra “enthusiasm is a lot more important than skill” wholeheartedly in this remarkably engaging and often hilarious collection of writings from his 30-year career as a contributor to numerous publications, including Field & Stream. Even those who have never baited a hook, assembled a tree stand, or sat in a duck blind will quickly find themselves drawn into Heavey’s world with colorful—and occasionally dangerous—accounts of outdoor life: shooting clay pigeons, nearly freezing to death in the remote Alaska wilderness, even manning the phones at Cabela’s, a massive outdoor retailer that handles roughly 15,000 calls a day. There is philosophical substance embedded in Heavey’s everyday musings, with insights into the murky waters of fatherhood and reflections on the meanings of childhood and manhood sprinkled throughout, but the emotional axis of the book is Heavey’s wrenching essay “Suddenly, She Was Gone,” an account of losing his young daughter. Unlike the chest-thumping TV personalities that dominate the outdoors hobby and leisure media today, the author’s humble and articulate worldview is unfailingly refreshing.

November 15, 2014

Heavey (It's Only Slow Food Until You Try To Eat It) writes a monthly column in Field & Stream magazine, in which he shares the trials, tribulations, joys, and frustrations of being an outdoorsman. In this offering, the author has collected essays published from 1998 to today. Most stories are lighthearted and humorous romps through the woods and streams, such as his list of hunting camp rules or his experience working at a call center for Cabela's, a retailer of hunting, fishing, camping, and other outdoor-related merchandise. Heavey writes of encounters with an old-timer, who can fix any fishing reel ever made; a taxidermist, who generously gives boys silver dollars; a game warden, who can even leave the ticketed smiling; and an Alaskan trapper, who saves his life. Other pieces relate more personal information, such as his evolving relationship with his father and the death of his daughter, Lily. VERDICT Overall, this book will appeal to outdoors enthusiasts, especially hunters and fishermen.--Margaret Atwater-Singer, Univ. of Evansville Lib., IN

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2014
Well into his second decade as columnist at Field and Stream, Heavey examines an eclectic variety of topics, from hunting to fishing to relationships and even life's more profound mysteries. His perspective is that of a devoted, if not always expert, outdoorsman. If in doubt, he makes fun of himself. Among the topics is a visit to the customer-service department at Cabela's, the outdoor-product distributor, which has reinvented the lost art of human contact in customer interaction. But real outdoor activity dominates here. Heavey discovered hunting in his late thirties, seeing his sudden fascination with blood sport as the reawakening of a long-dormant gene. Another highlight is Heavey's tribute to his dog, Snoopnot a working dog, just a dog, but no one's dog is just a dog. There's humor in the telling throughout, even in an account of being lost in Alaska in 30-below temps, a distinctly unfunny situation, but Heavey leaves readers laughing while frightened. Fellow outdoorspeople are the target audience, but the overall quality of the writing may draw even stay-at-homes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)