Book review

Deep Within is authentic Vermont fiction

Deep Within:  Stories of a Faded Heritage, by Tyler A.C. Mason of Albany, printed by First Edition Originals, Incorporated, Craftsbury Common, 142 pages, hardcover.  For price and availability information, contact the author directly at (802) 755-6224.

Reviewed by Bethany M. Dunbar

Anyone who wants to understand the Vermont tradition of deer hunting owes it to himself or herself to get ahold of a copy of Tyler Mason’s book, Deep Within.

Deep Within is a collection of short stories.  It is fiction, but it is among the most authentic fiction on this subject that this reviewer has ever read.  The characters are as real as can be, and the plots are exciting.  The writing is crisp and honest; even the Vermont accent is written perfectly.

Instead of “ayuh” which is sort of a Maine thing that writers sometimes put into the mouths of Vermont characters, Mr. Mason uses the spelling, “yuht,” for yes in some of his dialogue.

The writing is authentic for a reason.  Mr. Mason is a proud sixth-generation native Vermonter who started hunting when he was 11 years old.  At the age of 15, a month after he finished writing his first book, he shot a 118-pound doe.  A photograph of the author with that deer appears in Deep Within, along with a more recent photo and photos of two friends and ten-pointers they had taken.

On the cover is art that Mr. Mason drew himself — hunters tracking deer, maple sugaring, hunting camp, horses, and a portrait of a Vermont character.

Some of these stories are set in pioneer times, and some are more contemporary.  Some of are from a nostalgic grandfather’s point of view, and some are from the point of view of a young boy.

One story, “Soul and Spirit,” is about Ira Ward, a mountain man who lived in Vermont but wanted to be a Western-style cowboy:

He made a mistake at the age of fourteen which laid him up for a week in bed.  It was one of those mud season days that made you want to jump right up and do something — anyone who lives up in his neck of the woods knows the feeling — it almost didn’t matter what.  Winter had been long and cold; the snow was melting, the temperature was comfortable and the amount of wood that had to be stacked and thrown in the stove was dwindling to a near-end.

The changing weather and duties excited Ira so much that after chores he put the idea in his head that he was going to ride the six-month-old Hereford bull in the bull pen.

The end result is a broken left shoulder and collarbone and an aggravated father who keeps a closer eye on his son and works him a bit harder that summer once he’s out of his sling.

“Discipline and making up for what you missed were valued parenting in those days,” says the narrator.

Deep Within puts the tradition of deer hunting into a much clearer perspective than one gets from seeing just a photograph in the newspaper. The book describes the kind of effort and luck that go into learning the skills of tracking and the patience involved in a successful hunt.  The reader gets to feel what it’s like to tromp up mountains, through thick woods and swamps, and then sit behind a blown-down tree for hours or a day in hopes that a deer might come by.  The reader finds out how a buck in rut has different-looking tracks from a doe.  And how it feels to be all alone in the near dark after getting a deer that needs to be field-dressed and dragged for four miles in order to put some food on the table for the family.

In “Solid Line,” a young boy named Chad gets his first deer after two years of hunting.  First he hears a twig snap, then his companion points to the direction where he should be looking:

Within a minute, Chad could see a little of an outline behind the blown-over maple and noise came along with it.  Jeff could see Chad’s hands begin to quiver and the pulse in his neck pound. Chad’s heart pounded so hard, he could hear it through his own eardrums.  All at once, a deer’s head showed above the maple, then the chest, and then the whole body.  The small doe leaped over the maple and then with her front legs first bounded gracefully to her right.  Chad took a deep breath and let it out slow as his whole body began to shake and heat up as though he was standing in a spa with all these wool clothes on, even though he had been shivering seconds earlier.

As any serious hunter knows, a doe is often followed by a buck.

Chad tries to maintain focus as “the whole rest of the world was shut down at the moment — stopped turning....

“That first glimpse of antler in Chad’s life about made his heart stop.  Bang!  Chad did not expect the explosion from that rifle to be so loud.  His ears popped, but he paid no attention to that.”

Chad had shot perfectly, right through the brisket, and dropped the four-point buck in its tracks.

Deep Within is an impressive first book — or at least first printed book — by this young Vermont writer.