This odd book is difficult to place. It mines a narrow vein. It is not really about hunting, though most of it is comprised of just that. It is definitely not for the Marley and Me crowd. It is not even really about Colter, which is probably a good thing, since Colter seems solely about pointing well, pointing poorly, and yearning to point. And while Bass insists on "bragging him up", Colter seems, like the hunting itself, to be a monochromatic fellow.

Bass, however, through his writing, and the joy he experiences when hunting with Colter, succeeds in communicating how rare and miraculous it is to have a wholly shared purpose. The man, the dog, the place: they converge in a way that is so much more than the sum of their parts, and it is the near perfectly bred dog that makes it all possible. He is the bridge, connecting directly with nature at a molecular level, and bringing the hunter along to be part of it all. Then nature gets clobbered, but well, that is the way of it.

The tragic side of this coin: the horrific millions of dogs in North America that were near perfectly bred for something, but sadly find their genetic imperatives wholly at odds with their situations, and so find themselves having to be rescued, or worse, euthanized. From this angle, the fact that Bass and his dogs can hunt together for weeks on end, is a happy thought. Montana's doves, pheasants, grouse, and partridge, though, would see this as anything but a happy prospect. ( )

Rick Bass has a way with words that will capture your imagination, yet this book isn't one of his better written ones. I think the subject was too personal for him to back off and approach with a little more polish. Even so, the passion for Colter will carry you through the drier moments.

I enjoyed this love story for a dog he enjoyed for a few years. I tried not to criticize Bass in his relationship with Colter, but at times you wanted him to be a little more in charge. Colter was definitely defining the relationship boundaries. Still, it is a good read and a wonderful look at one man's best friend. ( )

I'm not a hunter nor am I interested in hunting but Bass' vivid and moving prose helped me understand, and appreciate, one environmentalist's obsession with bird hunting. A beautifully written memoir about a hunting dog. ( )

Have you ever read a book that is so gorgeous and resonant that it just tears your heart out? This is a book like that. Yes, you probably have to be a dog lover to fully appreciate the story but Bass' writing is sublime and loaded and rippling and majestic. He takes in Colter, his knob-headed hunting dog, as a favor to a friend, not knowing that this goofy looking pup will prove to be an absolute genius of a pointer and be the key to showing Bass the byways that many people never visit, teaching him about hunting and love and expectation and fulfillment.

Coupled with his transcendant prose about the natural world, this story of the best dog Bass has ever had is a delight. From Colter's entrance into Bass' life, his training as an incredibly promising hunting dog, all the hunts, successful and not, on which author and dog partner, to Colter's disappearance and the final resolution, this book glows with Bass' pride and love and respect for this most amazing animal in his life. It is an honoring of the bond they shared and a recounting of the lessons learned in each others' company. But most of all, it is a magnificently written book.

While Colter was a hunting dog and Bass did indeed hunt with him, the majesty and importance of the natural world shine through the whole narrative and it would be a shame for readers to dismiss the book from an anti-hunting stance. All animal lovers know that their pets have much to teach them but Bass has found a way to beautifully articulate those lessons in his paean to Colter. Much quoted in other reviews, the lines: "How we fall into grace. You can't work or earn your way into it. You just fall. It lies below, it lies beyond. It comes to you, unbidden," in the prologue give a sense of the reverence of the writing and the feeling captured in these pages. It is a grace fallen into, accidental or intentional, when the quiet reader opens the pages of this powerful, contemplative book. ( )