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Summary
Summary
A masterful hybrid of nature writing and cultural studies that investigates our connection with deer--from mythology to biology, from forests to cities, from coexistence to control and extermination--and invites readers to contemplate the paradoxes of how humans interact with and shape the natural world
Deer have been an important part of the world that humans occupy for millennia. They're one of the only large animals that can thrive in our presence. In the 21st century, our relationship is full of contradictions: We hunt and protect them, we cull them from suburbs while making them an icon of wilderness, we see them both as victims and as pests. But there is no doubt that we have a connection to deer: in mythology and story, in ecosystems biological and digital, in cities and in forests.
Delving into the historical roots of these tangled attitudes and how they play out in the present, Erika Howsare observes scientists capture and collar fawns, hunters show off their trophies, a museum interpreter teaching American history while tanning a deer hide, an animal-control officer collecting the carcasses of deer killed by sharpshooters, and a woman bottle-raising orphaned fawns in her backyard. As she reports these stories, Howsare's eye is always on the bigger picture: Why do we look at deer in the ways we do, and what do these animals reveal about human involvement in the natural world? For readers of H is for Hawk and Fox & I , The Age of Deer offers a unique and intimate perspective on a very human relationship.
Author Notes
ERIKA HOWSARE holds an MFA in literary arts from Brown University and has published two books of poetry. She also worked in local journalism for twenty years, covering culture and environmental issues. She teaches writing and contributes reviews and essays to various national outlets. A native of Pennsylvania, she lives in rural Virginia.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Poet and journalist Howsare (How Is Travel a Folded Form?) serves up a poignant meditation on humanity's relationship with deer. Examining the animal's cultural significance throughout history, Howsare notes that medieval Europeans believed deer had magical properties (burning antlers were believed to deter snakes) and that Cherokee hunters thought an "eternal figure who represents all deer" would give them rheumatism if they didn't perform a forgiveness ritual after killing deer. Contending that deer "embody binaries," Howsare thoughtfully probes humanity's contradictory treatment of them. One piece profiles a wildlife rehabilitator who takes in injured fawns reported by concerned civilians, while another recounts initiatives to cull deer populations across the U.S. because of "rage over landscape damage, disgust over pathogens, and fear over traffic accidents." The prose is elegant ("The buck seemed to flicker between life and death right there on the leaves. He was so beautiful and whole, but so still," Howsare writes of a deer fatally wounded by a hunter), and her lyrical musings cast her subject in a new light, as when she describes deer as "mashup-makers, remixers, shape-shifters" for their skill at adapting to diverse environments: "What animal could be a more perfect emblem for our own selves? Our precarious, fluctuating state?" Readers will be enthralled. Photos. (Jan.)
Kirkus Review
A fascinating exploration of deer. "Deer are the largest wild animals we still live with in any widespread way, one of the signal species of our time, as firmly established in our cities as in our national parks," writes journalist Howsare. They are definitely not tame, but it's a fallacy that they prefer untouched wilderness. Human-logged forests with plenty of brush provide lots of food, as do abandoned farms, cuts under power lines, and suburban neighborhoods. In parallel with bison, they were driven nearly to extinction by hunters after the arrival of European settlers. During their low point in the early 1900s, they survived in isolated pockets, but conservation and restocking supercharged them into a spectacular wildlife restoration success story--so much so that they began to wreak havoc on farms, parks, and gardens. Cars kill hundreds of thousands of deer per year, with several hundred humans dying in the collisions. What is to be done? Howsare offers no solutions but delivers entertaining accounts of the efforts. Today's "deer management" is the job of state wildlife agencies, who use recreational hunters as their essential tool. Yet hunters want bigger herds and prefer killing bucks to does. Because "most hunters take zero to two deer per year," they can never reduce the population, and reintroducing wolves, bears, and other predators, even in national parks, produces fierce opposition from neighboring ranchers. Mass killing ("culling"), although popular to eliminate snakes, feral pigs, and even coyotes, produces almost universal outrage. Howsare is not a hunter, but she is evenhanded, agreeing that to eat meat and oppose killing animals doesn't make sense. She delivers sympathetic portraits of her brother, an avid hunter, and of hunting ranches, largely denounced by the hunting establishment, where customers pay a small fortune to shoot deer and other wildlife. Outstanding natural history writing. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
People tend to have a love-hate relationship with deer. They may be enamored of them as elegant creatures or as adorable Bambis, perhaps they look at deer and think of a juicy venison steak. They may hate them for being voracious garden destroyers or kamikaze terrors for drivers. Whatever the source and nature of the emotions, humanity's complex relationships with deer have well-established precedent. Prehistoric cave paintings celebrate their power; medieval tapestries attest to their importance to nobility's prestige. Native cultures traditionally made use of every element of a deer carcass and expressed reverence and gratitude for it, while modern hunters kill deer for sport more than subsistence. Howsare acknowledges the deep, often mysterious connection humans feel with this large, beautiful mammal, citing the cultural, economic, and environmental impact the species has had throughout history. A nature writer with a poet's eye and a scholar's acuity, Howsare catalogs the variety of ways the two species have interacted over time, balancing her personal observations with broad research that aims to move the needle from love-hate to understanding-acceptance.
