Hunter's Moon

June 24, 2019
Caputo (Some Rise by Sin) probes violent masculinity and intergenerational conflicts, largely against the severe backdrop of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, in this decent but repetitive collection of interlinked stories. Father and sons quarrel viciously in “Grief,” in which a middle-aged Jeffery Havlicek brings his possibly senile father, Hal, on a hunting trip following Hal’s wife’s death, and in “The Nature of Love on the Last Frontier,” in which Paul’s frustrations with Trey, his impetuous son, evaporate in melodramatic brushes with disaster on a hunting trip in Alaska. Haunted Vietnam vet Will Treadwill stars in “Dreamers” as a guide to two Chicago policemen on a bear hunt. Will’s temper turns a tense encounter with younger, volatile Lonnie Kidman into a brutal calamity; a similar impulse in “Lost” leads to his frightening, disoriented night in the woods. “Lines of Departure” stumbles as it veers from pillorying the do-gooders who run the retreat for veterans with PTSD where Will volunteers to honestly recounting the carnage of war. Bed-and-breakfast host Lisa Williams, the only female protagonist, outgrows her once-a-year affair with Gaetan Clyne in “The Guest.” Caputo’s men cloak vulnerability with callousness, but his plots replace emotional growth with the shocks of violence. This collection will appeal to readers looking for a dramatic take on masculinity, though the stories blend together by the end.