Ramblings: Tales From Three Hemispheres features 240-pages and over 180 black-and-white photographs that richly document Michael Altizer’s contemplative and intimately composed accounts of his hunting and fishing journeys, from Patagonia to Alaska—along with the guns, fly rods, bows and friends with whom he shared the adventures.
The whisper of water on weathering stone as it courses cold around your waders, and the feel of streambed gravel beneath good felt soles. The resonant patter of rain on the brim of a trusty old hat, and the sweet, pungent aroma of November wafting through the woods on a cool autumn eve. Your first springtime walk on hillside grass following a flat, frozen interlude in hospital and rehab, and the summertime taste of fresh-picked tomatoes on your otherwise wintering tongue. A cottonwood storm in early June. The scent of elk and horses.
SUCH IS THE essence of life. This is, after all, why we fish and hunt, and then consign the experiences to memory. There is magic in the memories that flow from such experiences—and in the stories that result. But no matter the spheres from where they originate, it is the memories and stories that endure, long after the last shot has been fired, the last arrow has been released, the last cast has been made, and the last trail has been trodden.
Such awareness does not originate from within oneself. Instead, it is a gift from another plane, another sphere, one that is completely separate from the mundane trappings of day-to-day existence. The hunting becomes more meaningful than the hunt, the fishing more significant than the fish. The memories become more lasting than the experiences, and the stories that result can nourish the mind and soul long after the experiences which spawned them are relegated to the past. It is just such stories that the author shares with you here, reflecting the essence of the mountains and plains, the deserts and dunes, and the forests, waters and hemispheres from whence they come.
“Reading a Mike Altizer story is like sitting by an evening campfire in a hunting camp. His gifts are not only those of a fine storyteller, but a conjurer of images, using words like artists’ brushes to color the landscapes of his, and our, memories.”
–Jim Carmichel
“Mike Altizer’s poignant, sensitive style takes you to where he is and to what he’s doing, and lets you feel what he feels. Trite as it may sound, it really is like being there yourself. The rise of a trout, the flush of a quail, the laughter of a friend, and the feeling of being at the right place at sundown.” –Steve Smith
“Mike Altizer writes good and true sentences. He stands at the top in a rare enclave of writers who are so gifted in their craft that you can’t really put them into any sort of category.”
–Duncan Dobie
