Review by Lori Brunnen
The Foxhunter’s Guide to Life & Love by J. Harris Anderson, Blue Cardinal Press, Virginia, 2017, 216 pages, $16.95 (paperback) or $7.99 (e-book). Available from Amazon, tack shops, and booksellers.“Thumper” Billington IV, MFH of John Anderson’s fictional Montfair Hunt in Virginia, is back. This time we find Thumper rebounding from a failed impetuous marriage to a much younger woman, and embarking on a tentative and tender new romance. Thumper traverses the difficult geography of romance with somewhat more difficulty than he does the geography of the hunting field. Sometimes at a gallop, sometimes finding his progress thwarted by an unseen hazard, Thumper uses seven of his “Foxhunter’s Secrets” to navigate beyond the hunt field to a fulfilling relationship. Because, as difficult to accept as it is sometimes, there is life beyond hunting. Really.
Each of the seven secrets are presented by way of the story and summed up with a take-home tip. This “Tally-Ho Tip” is a tongue-in-cheek take-away lesson for those that need things short and sweet. In other words—men.
Writing this review as a woman, the book presents a decidedly masculine view of relationships. However, as a foxhunter, I can wholeheartedly embrace his thoughts on hunting. Foxhunting that is. I do believe the thrill of that chase and how I experience it is the same for me as it is for many men. Unless it is true that when I look at a man and wonder what he is thinking, he is thinking either about sex or nothing at all.
Each “Lesson” is prefaced by a short quote from an admirably diverse list of sources which include Paris Hilton, George Morris, Groucho Marx, as well as both Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. For example, one of my personal favorites heading the chapter “Foxhunter’s Secret #6: Persistence” is George Morris’ quote that “If you’re not going to the hospital, you’re getting back on.” Some of the “Tally-Ho Tips” concluding this chapter (as they do all the chapters) include “When the Going Gets Tough, Foxhunters Keep Going” from the Lesson “I Came to Hunt,” and “Know the Difference Between Tough and Stupid” from the Lesson “Live to Ride Another Day.”
My recommendation would be that when the hunting season is long over, and you are looking for something to read on a hot summer’s day at the beach, this may scratch that foxhunting itch until September rolls around. Even without accepting the proposed parallel between romance and foxhunting, the story can be enjoyed simply as foxhunting fiction with endearing peripheral characters such as the housekeeper Natasha, Irish huntsman Crispie and the odd Joint-Master Ryman.
Posted December 21, 2017