Review by | Larry S. Sterett | Contributing Editor
AIN’T NO SUCH ANIMAL and other stories from the Ozark hills, by Larry Dablemont; illustrations by Tom Goldsmith. Published by Lightnin’ Ridge Books, Box 22, Dept. TGM, Bolivar, MO 65613. Price: $15.95, plus postage.
This 252-page softbound volume features a brief word from the author, no index, a score of humorous stories, a few black-and-white photographs, and a great number of good sketches by Tom Goldsmith, usually on the title page or final page of each chapter. Most of the stories are less than 20 pages in length and several can be read at a setting.
If you enjoy the outdoors and learning a bit about how it used to be when our world wasn’t so populated, and living was less intense, this could be the book to read. Fishing, hunting—deer, turkeys, ducks, and more—and trapping stories all written in a conversational mode. If you grew up in a rural area it’s like going back in time to relive the past; if you grew up in the city or metropolitan area it provides insight on another way of living in a less hurried or rushed mode. (Times change, and the farm fence rows which used to harbor rabbits, quail, etc. to hunt in season are no more in most rural areas. In search of the almighty dollar the landowners have grubbed them out and planted corn or soybeans right out to the roadside ditch.)
This is an enjoyable book to read. It is not technical, there are no specs, the hunts are not always successful, nor the fish the largest caught that day, but then such is life. It is a book which can be picked up, a couple of stories read, laid back down to be enjoyed again later.
