The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw » (REV)

Patrick F. McManus is a renowned outdoor writer, humorist, and longtime columnist for Outdoor Life and Field & Stream. His most recent books are the Sheriff Bo Tully mysteries Avalanche and The Blight Way. He is the author of many other books, including such runaway New York Times bestsellers as The Grasshopper Trap, The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw, and Real Ponies Don't Go Oink! He lives in Spokane, Washington.

More witty cautionary tales of outdoor life, by everybody's favorite expert on the subject, Patrick F. McManus.

Publishers Weekly

McManus ( The Grasshopper Trap ) has been making outdoorsmen laugh for some time now, but his new collection of writing passes a sterner test. Here he can amuse someone who's never even baited a hook. McManus's stories generally involve either the comic misadventures of life in the wild (``A Road Less Travelled By''; ``Gunkholing''; ``Water Spirits'') or first-person coming-of-age stories set in rural America (``The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw''; ``Scritch's Creek''). His comic voice, resonating with a surprising depth of wit, is expressed in a pleasant, quirky prose style--but shows a tendency to get cute. Characters cry ``Owww!'' and ``Arrrhhhh'' and ``Arp!'' incessantly and excessively, and the author indulges a fondness for italic type: ``I . . . gasp . . . forgot my billfold. It's . . . pant . . . in my tackle box. Get it for me . . . choke . . . will you?'' This talented writer doesn't need to poke readers in the ribs to let them in on the joke. Author tour. (June)