The Old Man and the Boy

This story of a boy growing up hunting and fishing in eastern NC in the 30's and 40's is wonderful. His grandfather teaches him to be a man through lessons in the woods and water. I read it to my boys when they were old enough to understand and I think it's the only book both of them have read on their own (for the second time) that wasn't assigned to them in school. (one's in college, the other about to graduate high school). Warning: there is some language that is not appropriate (racial slurs) that may have been tolerated when the book was written. Despite those references, it's a great book you may go back to time and time again like i have.

Absolutely love this book.Every boy should grow up like this,in a perfect world.The making of a man and not just another bum

This book sums up my childhood-young adulthood, having been shown how to respect people as well as using and respecting the animals, water and land on my Grandfather’s ranch in much the same way Robert was.Understanding that times back then were not just or fair to many Americans and setting that fact aside, the life lessons taught by adults like The Old Man are still valid today. Sadly, kids are often handed off to you tube videos and “smart” phones leaving then to fumble about without first hand learning the ways of giving and earning respect, seeing the results of honest effort or learning about the balance of nature (and how easy it is to put it out of whack.)I know the “good old days” isn’t always what it sounds like for everyone, but this book takes me back to some of mine. Hopefully everyone has an “Old Man” they, too can reflect back to and be better for it as well.

This book contains 29 quasi-biographical short stories about Ruark's youth in North Carolina during the Depression and Prohibition. These stories are about fishing and hunting and appreciating nature and, most importantly, learning life's lessons. The narrator (The Boy) describes his fishing and hunting adventures with his grandfather (The Old Man). The Old Man teaches the Boy how to shoot, how to safely handle a gun, how to maintain a boat, the habits of various types of fish and game, etc. At the same time, the Old Man is giving the boy many of the more important life's lessons about respect (for both oneself and others), the value of education, women, and a sense of responsibility. This is a great book. Each of the stories is relatively short (say 10 pages) and written with an easy prose. You could easily sit down and blow through this book in an afternoon, but after I read the first few stories, I wanted to savor every one and draw it out. As you're reading these stories, you'll smell the salt air of the ocean or the smoky aroma of game cooking over an open fire. Ruark may not satisfy the literary critics and write prose like Hemingway or Faulkner, but he is certainly one of America's greatest writers. I don't understand why he isn't more widely read, I only discovered his writing about a year ago myself. In any case, I can guarantee that you will ponder your own childhood as you read this book, and by the time you finish this book, you'll be thinking about what it is you really want to do with the rest of your life. I agree with one of the other reviewers, I would give this book 6 stars if I could. These are stories about hunting and fishing, but they are also stories about growing up and about life.

Politically incorrect but charming tale of a boy's coming of age under the tutelage of his grandfather near the mouth of the Cape Fear (NC) River in the 1920's. Hunting (birds, ducks, deer), fishing, and marsh boating are coated in salt, sunburn, and sea.

The Old Man and The Boy is, in some respects, much like Mark Twain's "The adventures of Tom Sawyer". It is a difficult book review because you will be writing to two very different readers. The first, the reader born after 1960 and raised in a large city; and the second, the reader born before 1940 and raised in a small community in the Mid-west or the South before 1940. I say this because it's difficult to appreciate what you don't understand. It's like trying to describe love to someone who has never experienced it.The Old Man and the Boy took place during a gentler, softer, more tolerant time when nobody gave a second thought to a 9 year old boy walking down the street with a cane fishing pole over his shoulder and a hand made slingshot sticking out of his back pocket. Grandpa (The Old Man), had a PhD in child rearing and The Boy was his Post-Doctoral triumph.If you were ever a boy, or the parent of a boy, you will laugh and cry your way through this book, which is a compilation of articles written by Robert Ruark, a journalist cum author, during his tenure with Field and Stream magazine starting in 1953. The book rates 5 stars or 5 hearts, whichever.The hardback copy of this book which I just bought through Amazon is for my 11 and 13 year old grandsons Brandon and Ryan. They are finally old enough to appreciate it.

This is the beginning of Robert Ruark's writing career. A coming of age story set in the late 20's or early 30's. A story of a simpler life, a life connected with the out-of-doors, a celebration of boyhood with a loving grandpa, and all the joy of being part of each others lives.I've read this chronicle many times and it's as relevant today as it was in the late 40's when first I read it. You owe it to yourself to read this story... it rekindles a love and respect for nature, grand parents, life.

I grew up in rural Pennsylvania in the 50's. My father was an artist who wouldn't fish, because it would hurt the fish. I still like this book a lot, because it had the feeling of growing up in that era, AND it has a lot of very nice "turn of phrases" - elegant sentences - in a very back-woodsy way. I want to recommend this to a lot of my friends, but I must be careful, because it reflects some very old fashioned (i.e. 50's) views of women, as well as racial characterizations typical of the time. Otherwise, I like the values it presents.

This is a very good book to give to a boy. Some adults will find it a bit 'folksy' or sentimental in places, but there is as much interesting information in it and (importantly) more good advice about shooting, hunting and life in general than in any other book I know of.Ruark was a man's man and lived a varied life, he travelled, fought in a war, hunted and drank - often too much. An American, he died aged 49 in London in 1965. He was one of the world's most famous writers in the 1950s and 1960s.The sequel 'The old man's boy grows older' is also worth reading.

Charming book, well written. Maybe a little too much detail about shooting and fishing, but lovely warm descriptions about the old man’s wisdom, and the bond between him and the boy.

AN EXCELLENT READ

Possibly the best shooting and fishing book I have ever read - full of great philosophy. Ruark was masterful. I've lent it to a friend - must get it back!

as good as it gets should be listed as a classic