Should the Tent Be Burning Like That? : A Professional Amateur's Guide to the Outdoors

From a celebrated writer on the outdoors, hilarious stories about the joys and pitfalls of hunting, fishing, family, and adventure

For more than twenty years, Bill Heavey has staked a claim as one of America’s best writers and most passionate—if not necessarily most skilled—outdoorsmen. In his new collection, Should the Tent Be Burning Like That?, Heavey takes readers across the country to experience his triumphs and failures as a suburban dad who happens to love hunting and fishing. He nearly drowns attempting to fish the pond inside the cloverleaf off an Interstate Highway four miles from the White House. He rents and crashes a forty-four-foot houseboat on a river in Florida. He accompanies a shaggy steelhead fanatic named Mikey on a thousand-mile odyssey on the California coast and comes to see him as a purer soul than almost anyone he has ever met.

Whatever the subject, Heavey’s tales are odes to the notion that enthusiasm is more important than skill, and a testament to the enduring power of the natural world. Whether he’s hunting mule deer in Montana, draining cash on an overpriced pistol, or ruminating on the joys and agonies of outdoor gear, Heavey always entertains and enlightens with honesty and wit.