Good Keen Man

by Barry Crump

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 0959789723
• ISBN13: 9780959789720
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Hodder Moa Beckett
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

New Zealand Writing at it's Best by a Real Character and Kiwi Icon

Barry Crump was a very well known and well loved man. He was also a prolific author and his books are guaranteed to make you laugh. This is his first book, and legend has it he wrote it in two days -the memories were fresh. Barry Crump writes from his experiences as a culler of unwanted wildlife in the bush of New Zealand -deer, possums and other threats to the native flora and fauna. Back in the 1960's, it was a sweet life for the hunter. Trekking around the bush (NZ word for forest), staying in various bush huts (cabins) where fresh supplies were choppered in all the time, and getting paid handsomely for it as well. But a man needs a hand, and Barry's boss always had a "good keen man" to help, the only problem being they only lasted a few days on account of being unfit or useless or never handled a gun before and the like. My favourite character is the man who had to cook everything in a layer of possum fat, as far as he was concerned the job was heaven but for Barry it was a form of purgatory -the smell of rancid possum fat permeating everything from the cooking to the sleeping bags. If you can get your hands on a copy of this book, buy it and don't lend it out -it will be lent to others because it's such a good read and you'll never see it again!

A Good Keen Read!

Kiwi Barry Crump is a natural-born raconteur. Fortunately for New Zealand's pest control program of the 1960's he became, at the ripe old age of seventeen, a hired gun whose task it was to 'cull' the herds of non-native deer, boar and goat whose appetites defoliate the island nation and threaten any number of native animal species. Such cull hunters had to spend months on end in the Bush with little or no contact with human beings other than the camp partner or partners that were assigned to each hunting territory. Mr. Crump spends only as much time as necessary describing the gory details of his job (the killing being the least interesting part of it, he says), and flora and fauna in order to concentrate upon the niceties of living and working with a never-ending parade of eccentric and unique characters whose idiosyncracies send Mr. Crump's dry wit and sharp powers of description into overtime. Oh yes, he also tells about his dogs, and one 'old friend' in particular who stands out as his most reliable and trustworthy companion through thick and through thin. This book is a quick and easy read, although much too short; one wishes that Mr. Crump would go on forever. Alas, it is not to be but during the short, sweet, time that the reader spends with the author, he is held completely in thrall. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys good story-telling embellished by keen social obversation, don't look for anything deeply philosophical or sappy sentimental, however.