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The Everlasting Stream: A True Story of Rabbits, Guns, Friendship, and Family

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When Walt Harrington was first invited to Kentucky to hunt with his African American father-in-law and his country friends--Bobby, Lewis, and Carl--he was a jet-setting reporter for The Washington Post with a distaste for killing animals and for the men’s brand of old-fashioned masculinity. But over the next 12 years, this white city slicker entered a world of life, death, nature, and manhood that came to seem not brutal or outdated but beautiful in a way his experience in Washington was not. The Everlasting Stream is the absorbing, touching, and often hilarious story of how hunting with these "good ol' boys" forced an "enlightened" man to reexamine his modern notions of guilt and responsibility, friendship and masculinity, ambition and satisfaction.

In crisp prose that bring autumn mornings crackling to life, Harrington shares the lessons that led him to leave Washington. When his son turned 14, Harrington began taking him hunting too, believing that these rough-edged, whiskey-drinking men could teach his suburban boy something worthwhile about lives different from his own, the joy of small moments, and the old-fashioned belief that a man's actions mean more than his words.

The Everlasting Stream is a funny, intimate, inspiring meditation on the meaning of a life well lived.

CHAPTER ONE
Walt recounts the first time he went shooting with his father-in-law, Alex, in rural Glasgow, Kentucky, during a Thanksgiving visit with his wife. “I lived in Washington DC, where most people I knew believed hunters were sick, violent men.” His attitude toward his African-American hunting mates (“I was white, and I figured it was going to be my worry to fit in”) is “condescending as hell,” but it all turns around when he shoots his first rabbit, and surprises himself with the purity of his exhuberence when he calls out, “I got him!” He discusses the repulsion over having to clean his rabbit, but when his guests act similarly repulsed when he serves them rabbit dinner, he says “I think I’m going to kill some more.”


CHAPTER TWO
He describes hunting with Alex, Bobby, Lewis and Carl in a gully half the length of football field. “Over the years I’ve become convinced that Alex, Bobby, Lewis, and Carl have discovered the secrets of living life well,” although “the idea that these men had anything to teach me didn’t come to me for many Thanksgiving vacations.” He is attracted by how well they get to know a place through hunting “How many of us can say that about any place in our lives?” The men are like relics of a bygone era, but they eventually convinced him that he should bring his son along too. He introduces Carl and Bobby, who have retired from factory jobs—they own sixty acres together in the country. Lewis bought his own 18-wheel rig a few years ago and still hauls freight. Alex is retired and has many hobbies. The men talk in a colorful drawl about their dogs, teasing each other mercilessly.


CHAPTER THREE
He talks about hunting at the Old Collins Place. Every time he comes back there, he sees something for the first time. He talks about how ambitious he was as a kid, determined to make a name for himself in journalism. He meets his wife-to-be, Keran, and works thankless 70-hour weeks until he finally writes a profile of George Bush that gets him major attention, a huge raise, and freedom to cover other figures such as Jesse Jackson, Jerry Falwell, etc.


CHAPTER BOBBY’S BARN
His son Matt catches a rabbit and gets a sip off the post-hunting bottle of Wild Turkey. He discusses his tough decision of taking the boy hunting for the first time when he was “Really I rolled the dice. I knew that most affluent city perople would shield their sons from such rough men and gritty settings. But after my first few years of hunting I deced that the forests, fields, wind, rain moon, stars, leaves, weeds, guns, killing, cursing, drinking—and naturally the men themselves—would be good for Matt.” He describes skinning and gutting a rabit—he does it without squeamishness because “it has to be done,” the same way you have to clean up a kid’s vomit.


LAWSON BOTTOM
He discusses the time it dawned on him that he had come to savor things—the Miro painting he owns, for instance— and asks himself “I love my work but what if the day comes when I don’t? What happens to all of this? What happens to me? Will I be trapped in my affluence for the rest of my life?” (The climax of his career comes when President Bush is seriously considering appointing him as his official biographer, and even invites him to a celebrity-studded dinner, but eventually Bush decides the security risk is too great. Harrington considers it a blessing in disguise, thinking about all of the quality time he would have lost with his son, etc.)

THE EVERLASTING STREAM
He recalls a morning of picture-perfect contentment at a place called the Everlasting Stream—“such memorable momen...

240 pages, Paperback

First published September 9, 2002

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Walt Harrington

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5 stars
71 (52%)
4 stars
49 (36%)
3 stars
10 (7%)
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3 (2%)
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
Profile Image for Billy Jepma.
493 reviews10 followers
March 30, 2022
"Memorable moments are like waking versions of lucid dreams. We are within them and outside them at once as they are happening."

I would've never picked this book up on my own had my dad not asked me to read it. It's about hunting, for starters, an activity I couldn't have less interest in, and it seemingly focuses on "the good ol' days" of men's men. And the book is both of those things, through and through. Suffice to say; I started reading it with more than my fair share of skepticism. So, consider my surprise when, after reading it over several months in bits and pieces, I find myself stifling emotions during the final pages.

The book is about hunting, and the descriptions of the activity and the processes involved were not something I would confess to having enjoyed. I love animals more than people most days, which means it's a testament to Harrington's lovely, thoughtful writing that I ended up savoring the book as much as I did. It helps that his reckoning with the act of hunting and taking a life is a crucial part of the story he's writing about, too, as it reframes the activity in a light I would have considered otherwise. He taps into the value of rituals, designated experiences, places, and motions that can transcend the actions themselves and reveal something more meaningful. Being the sentimental, nostalgic sap that I am, I suppose it shouldn't be surprising that Harrington's careful recollections and examinations of these experiences felt very authentic.

I don't think there's a lot of material here that hasn't been done elsewhere, especially considering the ultimate message is one of reconciliation between different worlds. I also won't pretend that Harrington's outlook occasionally falls into privilege (something that, to his credit, he is at least partially aware of), and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he has problematic beliefs about the world. In this particular book, though, he remains mostly neutral on most of the "hot" topics and instead zeroes in on the experiences he's shared with the group of men the book focuses on. Harrington's revelations aren't shocking, but his journey to them is genuine and reads as such. His prose is also just a delight to read—precise, poignant, and sentimental without straying into self-important (at least not very often).

It's also important to note my experience with this book is undeniably shaped by my relationship with my dad and the simple truth that he's the one who put it in front of me. We differ in many ways—ideologically, intellectually, emotionally—but we're very close, and reading this, knowing that he had done the same and thought of me while doing so, affected me in ways I don't know if I quite have the words for. Regardless, the book offers a safe middle ground to explore different forms of masculinity and their influence on men of different generations, which is something I am interested in and found very rewarding. It asks us how we can continue to grow and evolve in productive, inclusive, and deconstructive ways (which is crucial) while also maintaining an appropriate recognition that not everyone who came before us was wrong in how they did things. The Everlasting Stream doesn't offer a firm direction, as it shouldn't. Instead, it presents an isolated experience and turns it into something potentially universal. It certainly felt that way to me.

This isn't a 5-star book, at least not technically, but it's getting the 5 stars anyway. It touched me in more ways than one, and I'm very glad I took my dad's advice and gave it a chance. Here are a few quotes from the book that I especially liked.

"Memorable moments are like waking versions of lucid dreams. We are within them and outside them at once as they are happening."

"It's not the material remnants of this place that matter. It's the meaning I've made of them."

"Under the guise of telling me stories about themselves, the men have been constantly affirming the story that is their family."

"The power isn't in the memory of the story; the power is in the telling of the story. The telling is what holds the moment, makes it immortal."
Profile Image for Rob.
323 reviews2 followers
October 25, 2014
A story of male bonding across time, space, and culture, and the intergenerational transmission of life's lessons about friendship, family, and earth's beauty and bounty.
Profile Image for Brett Walker.
30 reviews5 followers
January 17, 2011
Loved it. It's a great autobiographical essay on how a non-materialistic life can be so meaningful. I liked Harrington's writing style, use of characters, and even editorial tangents. Lots about rabbit hunting, the front story for an incredible backstory.
Profile Image for Allen Goetz.
38 reviews2 followers
December 1, 2014
A great book about male relationships, initiation into manhood and hunting.
Profile Image for Robin.
553 reviews4 followers
May 30, 2020
Truly a great book for men but also very insightful for women. I appreciate its emphasis on the many facets of relationships among men and how important those bonds are to men's contentment overall. Women, I think, forget men need strong male friendships not only for mentoring and maturing but also teach about having an inner life dictated by the mind and soul as opposed to modernity. Material goods and prestige bring only fleeting pleasures though our consumer-based economy would have us think otherwise. For lasting memories it is our relationships that sustain us through good times and challenges. This is a book I would recommend to men of all ages but especially younger men.
Profile Image for Kate.
248 reviews2 followers
March 14, 2021
A series of connected essays about the subtitle “A true story of rabbits, guns, friendship and family”) I wasn’t initially much impressed but persisted and then came to the essay about his dad. It was like hitting gold. What a LOVELY essay. And the rest of the book from there was a poignant and sweet read about a man deciphering manhood, fatherhood, family, through a bi-cultural and bi-racial lens that led him from what was a high-powered journalism gig at the Washington Post to hunt rabbits at Thanksgiving with his wife’s relations in Kentucky. He left the Beltway to be a professor in Illinois later, and never looked back. I liked the book. Am passing it along to my future son-in-law!
4 reviews
August 30, 2021
This is a one of a kind book that everyone should read. It is the unique by product of the author being able to critically look back over a life of experience, draw conclusions and pull out lessons. Lessons of racial disparity (or lack thereof) thorughout a generation and across geographical lenses, as well as lessons of a life well lived as the author comes into his own and brings his children up with him as he matures. The story telling is second to none, the self reflection is second to none, and the authors ability to draw conclusions and make comparisons to find nuggets of wisdom that remain true is uncanny. Truly a wonderful read start to finish.
Profile Image for Christian Jones.
31 reviews
July 20, 2020
A very good book. About hunting rabbits in the south, which is fascinating, but also a deep look at masculinity, purpose and meaning.

It’s not a treatise on any of the above topics, but it is an honest account of one mans internal wrestling with modern day ambition and the deeper things of both the world and relationships.

Worth reading.
Profile Image for Carol Ellis.
25 reviews
September 7, 2017
This is a charming story about friendship and tradition. I admit to scanning past some of hunting blood but more enjoyed than not.
Profile Image for Kathryn.
120 reviews5 followers
March 9, 2019
Beautiful nature writing combined with mind-numbing navel gazing about masculinity. Also it pissed me off that he never took his daughter hunting.
156 reviews
September 20, 2022
A darn good book. The Everlasting Stream is an Eloquently written book that gets into your mind and has you wanting a little more.
Profile Image for Father Nick.
201 reviews94 followers
December 24, 2012
This book was recommended to me by a fellow hunter, and presumably an acquaintance of the author while I worked at the university where he now teaches (UIUC). Seven years later, I've finally gotten around to taking him up on that recommendation...

... and I'm pleased. The book is definitely more a memoir than a "book about hunting," but Harrington clearly experienced something profound in his annual rabbit hunts with his father-in-law and his friends. Indulged at first as an act of politeness for his wife's family, the annual rabbit hunt in Kentucky becomes the lens through which Harrington views his upwardly mobile, ambition-driven life in D.C. at the Washington Post. As his own son begins to grow older, Harrington articulates a perspective on the transition into fatherhood and the ways it grows from the inside out, taking root in the soil of one's own experience of being fathered.

I got a little weary of the personal biography in the middle portions of the book, but now that I've read the whole thing I do appreciate how Harrington was leading the reader into a perspective on hunting that required such apparent digressions. As a boy from a blue collar family who had worked his way into the East Coast elite, and stepped comfortably into the customs and privileges that attach thereunto, Harrington at first sees hunting as most of his colleagues do--a primitive, cruel, and pathological activity that is completely unnecessary and therefore immoral.

Particularly insightful is Harrington's reflection on the guilt inherent to taking an animal's life as a recreational activity. What justifies such an action? Firing a weapon at a gentle, doe-eyed animal and collecting its bloody, still-warm carcass to cut up and eat seems the height of barbarism. Civilization has moved on.

Harrington mentions the arguments for the necessity of wildlife management, but the real treasure of The Everlasting Stream lies in its insistence that the animals don't care how they die: but we do. Whether it's a coyote or a disease or a charge of buckshot, it matters nothing to the rabbit; but the taking of that animal's life by a human being introduces consciousness into the equation, and therefore accountability--an answer to the question "why". The animal does not ask; we do. Harrington concludes that the "guilt" is precisely what is most important about hunting, precisely because it forces the hunter to question his place in the world--why do I have a right to exist, to let (or cause) other beings to die that I might live? In essence, the hunt goes on not despite the guilt, but because of it. In spite of the danger of making a mountain of a molehill, I have to wonder if perhaps our complete lack of familiarity with the true "costs of living" in our grocery-store world has laid to rest the question of our justification before it's ever even raised.

As a hunter who loves to hunt animals and to eat animals but hates to kill them, I found the author's resolution of this primal dilemma to shed a completely new light on hunting. I recommend this book to anyone who is bewildered by a husband, father, brother, or son that spends way too much time in the woods watching animals while holding a weapon.
Profile Image for Jason Carter.
320 reviews14 followers
December 30, 2022
What is a life well lived?

This is emphatically not the question the author was asking himself the first time he hunted with his father-in-law. More like, what the hell am I doing here?

'Here' in this case was south-central Kentucky, a far cry geographically, but especially culturally, from Washington, DC--the author's home, where "most people believed hunters were sick, violent men." The white, liberal WaPo journalist had married a black woman who hailed from the sticks and Thanksgiving became the annual trip to her home in which her father, Alex, and his friends Carl, Bobby, and Lewis hunted squirrel, as they had done since time immemorial.

Walt was thrust into this cultural milieu whether he liked it or not. Mostly not. Until it grew on him. Slowly and almost imperceptibly, he began to view life with a different perspective, reflecting on his own values and those he wanted to transmit to his children.

What is life well lived?

This book may not answer that question for you definitively, but it will force you to reflect upon the things you hold most dear and why you do so.

Highly recommended. I loved this book.
Profile Image for Ann.
645 reviews22 followers
July 25, 2013
A book about getting to know your in-laws over hunting, and figuring out that hunting isn't some old ritual doomed to the sands of time, but an important way of building friendships and telling meaningful stories. This book in particular is about race and class, and how that does (and often doesn't) effect the relationship between men as they go about hunting rabbits, cleaning rabbits, and cooking rabbits. It's a book about BEING A MAN, which I (mostly) didn't find too off-putting as Harrington discovers that Washington jet-setting leaves something to be desired. In fact, I liked the thoughts about masculinity, race, and class, and they are told artfully with some lyrical prose. Kentucky is beautiful in this book, and I enjoyed reading it.
Profile Image for Conrad.
444 reviews12 followers
July 15, 2011
Most books, it seems, allow us to live vicariously through the author's experiences. This book,however, was like reading of my own experiences since I've been rabbit hunting for so many years now with a group of close friends and a bunch of beagles. It's a very thoughtful book - not just about hunting but of the friendship of the men and how they are bound together. His descriptions of events bring to mind so many incidents of our own history - getting snagged by briars, searching for lost dogs, ribbing friends about a missed shot and telling old stories over again and sharing a good laugh. It made me realize just how rich the history of our many years hunting together has been.
Profile Image for Nancy Sharp.
Author 6 books28 followers
January 28, 2014
Never would have I thought a story about rabbit hunting would compel me. The Everlasting Stream (love this title) is of course about so much more than the thrill of the kill, and yet the book is laden with very vivid (read: blood and guts) scenes. What captivated me was the power of the narrative. Readers cannot help but be drawn into the dual worlds that Walt Harrington shares, that of his D.C. life as a top newspaper editor, and the more foreign world of his wife's upbringing in rural Kentucky. This is a powerful book about vulnerability, kinship, and values.
Profile Image for Erik.
980 reviews10 followers
January 8, 2009

Hard to describe just how good this book really is. This is the (nonfiction) story of a rich, white Washington Post journalist, and his annual Thanksgiving day rabbit hunts in rural Kentucky with his black father-in-law and his father-in-law's black friends. A great book. But this is not a discussion of race. Rather, it is an exploration of the "meaning" of hunting and hunters, and of those things in life that truly matter.
103 reviews3 followers
April 29, 2012
The book serves as a reminder that enthusiasm for living, the joy of it, no matter our circumstances, is pretty much the game.

If you've ever pondered "what is a life well lived?", then this book is a good place to check out some interesting and meaningful perspectives on that question.
Profile Image for Kate Jolley.
372 reviews5 followers
December 17, 2021
Poetic and thought-provoking, Harrington's stories and musings make you ache for a simpler past left behind and root for the good old boys still holding on to it. What an incredible journey highlighting two conflicting cultures in one man's life.
Profile Image for Richard.
31 reviews
October 29, 2015
I loved this book. It is a great story of men being men without pretense or sugar coating
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews

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