Rating: 
Summary: RUARK & HEMINGWAY
Review: After reading several reviews on this famous book and much wait when I finally got this book, truly I was a little bit disappointed during reading. I had in my mind something superior than Hemingway and Capstick's works. Before this I read his later book 'Use Enough Gun' which I think is better than this one. However, when I finished, it was added in my list of to-be-re-read books. These are the books which leave an impression on you, which take you in the atmosphere of theirs and you remember the good taste of the book as of very fine things in the life.Now I would say that Hemingway is a kind of more powerful and more hunter on this safari stuff, in the "Green Hills of Africa". His white hunter Philip Percival is not as much narrated as Herry Selby of Ruark's. Interstingly Selby is one of the pupil of Percival as Ruark is inspired by Hemingway. I think that the Ruark has the edge of being more comic and funny. His humouress narration of his own acts and that of his companions are different then many hero-type hunters-authors, who always succeed in every crisis. His desire to shoot a Greater Kudu trophy and story of fair chase and the end of chase....is a classic picture of true hunting attitude. He was not a rifle shooter before this safari as opposed to Hemingway who was a serious hunter. One of the finest parts in this book is the episode of sand grouse shooting and Ruark's pride on his expertise in bird shooting over his white hunter Selby, who used to surprise Ruark in rifle shooting. Collectively a very fine book on the African safari hunting in the golden era of long safaris.
Rating: 
Summary: Classic-More details than Capstick, less gore-very good
Review: Great book. First few chapters (setup) not that impressive, but the rest of the book every bit as good as I had hoped. Not a collection of misadventures, but rather an account of a single safari (9 weeks?!). Who has that kind of time? A good story written well. Don't let the slow start put you off.
Rating:
Summary: It doesn't get any better than this.........
Review: I had heard alot about this book for years and finally got around to reading it. If you enjoy high quality adventure and hunting writing, it truly does not come better than this.
Ruark takes the reader along on his (and his wife's) first African safari and makes us feel the sights, sounds, smells, adventure, boredoom, fatigue, terror etc. that he experiences as if we were there. His writing is at times witty and always interesting. A fascinating portrait of an era long gone. A great read.
Rating:
Summary: Horn of the Hunter
Review: One of the finest books ever written on Hunting period. Ruark odes Hemingway's Green Hills of Africa hands down. In this book we follow a man and his wife from New York's high life to the backwoods African bush. We discover what a buffalo really looks like, and how you feel when he looks at you! We discover fear, anxiety, restlessness, pride, truimph, and in the end respect and joy. A very highly recommended book.
Rating:
Summary: A Writer on Safari
Review: Robert Ruark's chronicle of his African safari in the 1950s. This is good reading for both outdoor buffs and readers of a more literary type. Ruark avoids the pitfall of turning his book into an extended article for "Field and Stream." Aside from the details of the big-game hunt, he sprinkles his narrative with recollections of his WWII combat experience, musings on the literary world of New York, books, movies about Africa, and life in America. The focal point of the book is the daily experience of fighting the African environment in the pursuit of the elusive prey. The descriptions of the wildlife are thrilling as the hunting party tracks across the primeval plains. Ruark gives full attention to the discomforts of safari life and the doubtful sanity of those who submit themselves to this type of "recreation." The killing is graphically described and not for the squeamish. Animal rights activists should steer clear of this book. Ruark has great fun describing himself as an Ernest Hemingway "wannabe." Comparisons to Hemingway's "Green Hills of Africa" are inevitable. Ruark is more self-deprecating than Ernest Hemingway, and can see the outrageous humor of it all. The white hunter guide, Harry Selby, falls short of the Allan Quartermain ideal. Selby is afraid of snakes and scorpions, and manages to get the safari lost at least once. Just as Hemingway, Ruark takes his wife, Jenny, along on safari. She handles the discomforts very well, and doesn't wimp out. This book won't be studied a 100 years from now in American Lit. classes, but it's diverting reading. It recalls the macho standards of a different era. Ruark's reputation has faded since his heyday in the '50s and early '60s. For those who remember, this book is an interesting footnote to his literary career. ;-)
Rating:
Summary: A Writer on Safari
Review: Robert Ruark's chronicle of his African safari in the 1950s. This is good reading for both outdoor buffs and readers of a more literary type. Ruark avoids the pitfall of turning his book into an extended article for "Field and Stream." Aside from the details of the big-game hunt, he sprinkles his narrative with recollections of his WWII combat experience, musings on the literary world of New York, books, movies about Africa, and life in America. The focal point of the book is the daily experience of fighting the African environment in the pursuit of the elusive prey. The descriptions of the wildlife are thrilling as the hunting party tracks across the primeval plains. Ruark gives full attention to the discomforts of safari life and the doubtful sanity of those who submit themselves to this type of "recreation." The killing is graphically described and not for the squeamish. Animal rights activists should steer clear of this book. Ruark has great fun describing himself as an Ernest Hemingway "wannabe." Comparisons to Hemingway's "Green Hills of Africa" are inevitable. Ruark is more self-deprecating than Ernest Hemingway, and can see the outrageous humor of it all. The white hunter guide, Harry Selby, falls short of the Allan Quartermain ideal. Selby is afraid of snakes and scorpions, and manages to get the safari lost at least once. Just as Hemingway, Ruark takes his wife, Jenny, along on safari. She handles the discomforts very well, and doesn't wimp out. This book won't be studied a 100 years from now in American Lit. classes, but it's diverting reading. It recalls the macho standards of a different era. Ruark's reputation has faded since his heyday in the '50s and early '60s. For those who remember, this book is an interesting footnote to his literary career. ;-)
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best African hunting safari narrative written
Review: Ruark was known as "the poor man's Ernest Hemingway". In "Horn of the Hunter", his prose and eloquent introspection out does Hemingway's "Green Hills of Africa".
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best African hunting safari narrative written
Review: Ruark was known as "the poor man's Ernest Hemingway". In "Horn of the Hunter", his prose and eloquent introspection out does Hemingway's "Green Hills of Africa".
Rating:
Summary: After 45 years, still the best safari book ever written.
Review: Ruark's wit and irreverence sometimes remind me of Edward Abbey at his best. The book is filled with allusions to the pop-culture of post-WWII America which drove me, a child of the sixties, to learn more about the age. Ruark's love for the Miles and Miles of Bloody Africa is surpassed only by his love for his wife and safari companion, Virginia. A giraffe's head-and-shoulders better than anything Hemingway ever wrote about Africa.
Rating:
Summary: terrifically written, great story.
Review: Ruarke is rightfully called the master of outdoor writing. This is a fabulously written story of his first safari in Kenya and Tanganyika (now Tanzania). It is a must read for anyone who enjoys outdoor literature, hunting stories, or Africa.
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