While I usually have no difficulty expressing my opinion on things, I’ve somewhat struggled to write this review. Most of the blame for this lies with the fact that I feel more than a little personal attachment to Robert (Bob) McMichael’s world of “Chukar Culture.”
His blog, Chukar Culture will always be connected at the waist with chukar hunting in general for me. It was recommended to me over a half decade ago by a good friend, just as I was getting into bird hunting in general — it’s possible that I was reading this excellent blog before I had ever even gone into the field. He’s also directly responsible for my choice of a Sunburst Brittany, the companionship of one being one of the greatest joys a sportsman can experience.
Of course, I don’t want to dwell on myself too long here, but rather wanted to inform the reader of my personal attachment to the contents of this book, which is why I feel a sense of propriety and a desire to accurately convey what McMichael’s Chukar Culture means to me, and hopefully will mean to you, too.
At a high level, Chukar Culture the book is a print collection of the essays that McMichael has published digitally over the years. They date all the way back to 2009, so this likely makes Chukar Culture the most complete record of the chukar hunting life in all of human history.
These essays were lightly edited, and a few new pieces also appear interspersed through the chronological order of the book. A few were also contributed by McMichael’s wife, Leslie; the topics of Leslie’s six essays are well-selected, relatable, and judicious — the bay leaves to the Chukar Culture chili.
Not only do these new interludes, introductions, and asides serve a narrative role and help tie the collection into a cohesive thing of its own, they are also quite touching in parts. In particular, the very first Introduction sets the heavy tone for what follows, and serves in a way as the perfect summation of the contents of what’s to come, as well as the perfect inspiration to keep reading. I have a bad habit of glossing over “Introductions,” but don’t skip this one.
This book flows very well, and reads easier than I expected it to given McMichael’s literary chops. While I didn’t go back and compare the printed work against the originals that appeared on the website, whatever herbs and spices he added indeed served the work as a whole. Ultimately, the book was a much easier read than I expected, especially given its tome-like appearance that weighs in at 339 pages.
Indeed, McMichael is a lifelong man of words, and is very well-read as you may have gathered from reading the back jacket. If your interests are a bit more lowbrow, fear not — the references, quotes, allusions, intertextuality, and philosophizing sprinkled in are both accessible and well-suited to the subject at matter hand. You might even find your next favorite poet.
Earlier, I used the phrase “heavy tone.” For me, the most significant and noteworthy elements of the book grapple with the heavier side of life, and by extension, death. The most meaningful parts of the book to me were, with absolute certainty, the parts that were the least fun for McMichael to write. He’s had a few dogs, and as every dog owner knows, there will come a time that your dog won’t be with you anymore.
Rather than trying to wax too poetic about these sorts of (admittedly very poetic) things for page after page and risking veering into the saccharine, McMichael generally takes a different tack, one that someone like Robben Ford might take while crafting a guitar solo: play only the notes that sting the most, and let the audience fill in the gaps themselves. It certainly works, and I found McMichael’s narrations to be just as beautiful as they were hard for me to read.
If you have ever had the joy of bringing home that new puppy, full of life and piss and vinegar — that privilege of watching it grow up and get into its first birds, and then its last — all while that cold memento mori sits in the back of your mind the entire time, reminding you that these beautiful melodies that make up the symphony of a life of a bird-dogger are only temporary, just like everything else in the natural world… this is a book for you.
Perhaps, didn’t grow up in a hunter or in a hunting environment and took up this somewhat odd calling later in life (like McMichael did). Perhaps you felt more than a bit of regret when you walked up on your first bird (or deer, or elk). Perhaps you still do from time to time. Perhaps you value the other aspects of chukar hunting more than simply getting back to the truck with a vest full of a limit of birds. Perhaps you would still go and “hunt chukar” even if all of the chukar on earth magically disappeared overnight. Perhaps you too have watched some of your old hunting grounds be closed down for the benefit of foreign corporations, and have had the thought that the good guys are slowly losing the generations-long fight. If you self-identify with any of these criteria… this is a book for you.
I’d also like to pay the quality of the physical Chukar Culture a compliment. The cover photo is beautiful, and the quality of the printed product from Chukar Culture Press is excellent. I have this sitting out on a shelf in the living room because I enjoy looking at it so much.
Television has shown us that almost anyone can “sing” given enough practice, but few are those blessed with a voice to make them memorable or unique for anything longer than a fleeting moment. In the same way, in the era where “content creation” reigns supreme, everyone thinks they can write; most technically can, but few will be memorable or noteworthy in the long run. McMichael has a voice of his own among outdoor writers, and when combined with this specific subject matter, the resulting Chukar Culture stands alone and proud among other great outdoor works of this century and the last.
Whether you have a deep archive of hunting literature, or are looking for something to stave of the offseason blues while kicking it on a beach in Hawaii, Chukar Culture combines excellent, human storytelling with deep insights, plenty of well-placed pop culture references, exciting depictions of public land chukar hunting in the West, and ample re-read value.
Pick up a copy of your own on the Chukar Culture store, where you can also find McMichaels’ newly-published novel The Rim.
