While book reviews are meant to critique, lambasting a local author in a local newspaper seems way off. I read Alex Hanson’s review of Robin MacArthur’s debut novel, Heart Spring Mountain, with great disdain (“Vermont Author’s First Novel Stumbles Into ‘Literary’ Fiction’s Pitfalls,” Feb. 9). In all my years writing for and reading local newspapers, I don’t know that I’ve ever read such a vicious review put out by a local newspaper of a local author.
I read (and absolutely loved) MacArthur’s short stories, Half-Wild, and am really enjoying Heart Spring Mountain. I love MacArthur’s writing style: She captures Vermonters in all their storied glory in unfettered text that always manages to move me. MacArthur’s characters are raw, beautiful and real, set in the equally raw and sometimes brutal landscape of Vermont. Hanson’s review seemed so venomous, so downright nasty, that I had to re-read it a handful of times to figure out where the hatred for MacArthur’s writing was coming from (not to mention dredge through all the references to blowhard B.R. Myers).
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes when Hanson wrote that he’s probably “not the intended audience” of Heart Spring Mountain (because, you know, men can’t read books by women about women, because, yuck: women), and then puffs himself up by basically saying, “Oh, but Jane Eyre was good,” so clearly Hanson is cool with women stuff.
I mean, my goodness, Hanson compares a debut novel with several of the top literary classics of all time mainly to justify that he’s down with female writers. But really? Give a debut novel a break! And I’m not sure why he is on such a bender with B.R. Myers. MacArthur’s writing is not fragmented bits meant to push away readers who are not “clever” or part of the “cultural elite,” as Hanson suggests. In fact, I’d say her writing is the exact opposite. MacArthur’s writing indeed has a “sense of coherence” and “beauty.” It’s gritty and it’s good and I love it.
Meghan Oliver
Norwich
There is so much that Alex Hanson missed in his reading of Robin MacArthur’s novel Heart Spring Mountain (Feb. 9) that it’s hard to know where to begin. But more to the point, why on earth would the Valley News assign the review of a literary novel to someone who does not believe in the genre? That would be like sending a lactose-intolerant food critic out to evaluate a new Ben & Jerry’s flavor.
Hanson’s distaste for literary novels (and his reverence for the cynical B.R. Myers) are his own business, but MacArthur deserves more thorough and intelligent treatment in a piece posing as review of her novel.
Jonathan Stableford
South Strafford
I recently wrote to you regarding the callous picture of a man setting a trap for an animal. I thought at the time that perhaps it was just poor judgment in displaying mankind’s cruelty on the front page.
Now I am convinced that the Valley News is insensitive and inhumane after seeing a picture of a beautiful but dead bobcat within the pages of your paper (“One Last Catch,” Feb. 9).
Bobcats are elusive, beautiful creatures that, unlike humans, do no harm to the environment or harm people. I grew up in rural Maine and never even saw a bobcat. I have been in Vermont for 15 years and had the absolute delight in seeing one on a back road one night last year. It was a wonderful moment.
The day the paper came out I heard a dozen comments from people who feel as I do that these beautiful, elusive creatures should not be hunted. They do not provide food for starving people, but seem to be considered a trophy to those less sensitive to the natural order of life and the beauty of the creatures that we have been blessed with having in our world.
Bobcat hunting is much debated and it is completely insensitive to ignore the feelings of those who oppose their demise by placing the picture in your paper. When my subscription renewal arrives, I will consider carefully whether or not I will continue to support the Valley News.
In a time when we are confronted daily with the uniqueness of human beings to treat each other so poorly let’s not glamorize the killing of creatures who just try to live their lives in survival mode. Let us admire their beauty and be grateful that there are beings in the world that are not interested in harming masses of people and taking over countries. Animals ground us and we should respect their right to exist unharmed — especially those that provide only a target.
Linda Wilson
Springfield, Vt.
I would not have bought the Feb. 9 paper had I known there would be a large photograph of a dead bobcat at the top of your Local & Regional section. I passed by one edition a few weeks back that had a prominent photograph of a trapper on the front page.
New Hampshire concluded that a season on bobcats would have no good purpose. Killing them for their skins is disgusting. Few American women wear furs now. The market for taxidermied bobcats must be quite narrow. As for the trapper, many people think trapping should be outlawed for the cruel and ugly “sport” that it is.
I don’t want to see such photographs in my local paper. Maybe I need to switch.
Lisy Meyers
North Haverhill
In the year 2018, there is absolutely no justification for murdering a bobcat.
Brian Cain
Sharon
Abraham Lincoln was fond of an ancient Persian aphorism which, in the current age, provides a few sobering words of caution for those who are gleefully reveling in the Trump presidency, and a few comforting words of solace for those who are agonizing over its very existence: “This, too, shall pass.”
Charlie Buttrey
Thetford