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Eden Hunter (2010)

by Skip Horack(Favorite Author)

3.78 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1582438501 (ISBN13: 9781582438504)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Counterpoint Press

review 1: Beyond the well imagined plot—stocked by extensive historical research on the author’s part, I’m sure—the main point I wish to highlight about Skip Horack’s The Eden Hunter is the prose style. Undoubtedly, The novel grips, and the immediacy of danger and haunting tension is thoughtfully magnified by the writing choices. The terse, simple, and quickly paced sentence structure sets the tone perfectly. More so, I read the prose as incredibly poetic, despite the unpoetic circumstances presented as we follow the book’s protagonist, Kau, an escaped Pygmy slave, through the wilderness of early America. Horack states an image with minimal description, but just enough lyrical manipulation that the images jump. Alliteration is often employed, and the repetition of sound... mores creates a rhythm. For example, a particular expert reads: “He kept on until his stomach was full and then waded into the tannic moonlit lake. There he tore loose wide sheets of lotus and lily that later he slathered with honey and then folded into tight envelopes.” (pg 87). Here, the consistent use of “t” sounds and hard syllables while describing a beautiful image is an example of how the author’s style propels the entire narrative forward with energy—that immediacy of the present and plunging future which Kau feels and battles intrepidly in search of his past, his Eden. Kau must continue forward for he is thrown into such dangerous circumstances that there is little time to look back and mourn. His only choice is to hope that by advancing he will find again his sense of place away from fear and guilt. While reading I thought to myself that the author must have worked and reworked the prose, taking more and more away from his original sentences. The end product is a novel which reads, surprisingly, very smoothly. With its hurried tone, the prose reflects a hunt; but also through the honest and poignant details, the prose reflects the visceral, heartfelt experience of searching for a lost Eden, a place that can never be rediscovered. Horack tells us what the story looks like, but does not tell us how to feel. The author allows the reader to feel for themselves, an accomplishment in literature—to render the rhythm, or pulse, of a character’s journey, to be honest in voice, and all the while quietly generate an experience within the reader. The Eden Hunter is not a novel I would have usually picked up, perhaps due to the fact that when reading I usually opt for more romantic periods in history, but I’m happy I had the opportunity to read this novel. I found it artistic with its blunt narrative and its rhythmic and flowing depiction of nature in contrast to a horrifying example of human history and the questioning of human nature. It is an intelligent, well written story.
review 2: This story latched on from the first page and didn't let go. Some authors can't hold your interest while flashing back and forth from present to past and back again, but this was not the case. I was somewhat reminded of Blood Meridian with the simple, straightforward descriptions of battle, albeit on a small scale, combined with the movement of the main character from one event to another with seemingly no hope in sight. The fact that this was a debut novel is promising. less

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