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| Falconer on the Edge: A Man, His Birds, and the Vanishing Landscape of the American West |  | Author: Rachel Dickinson
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
Buy Used: $7.31
as of 9/10/2010 16:40 EDT details
You Save: $16.69 (70%)
New (20) Used (11) from $7.29
Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 783,093
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.9
ISBN: 0618806237
Dewey Decimal Number: 799.232092
EAN: 9780618806232
Publication Date: May 11, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780618806232 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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Product Description
Rachel Dickinson profiles falconer Steve Chindgren, a man willing to make extreme sacrifices to continue practicing the sport that has ruled his life. Dickinson arrives at a sense of falconry’s allure: the unpredictable nature of the hunt and the soaring exhilaration of success.
Further exploration unveils the enormous emotional cost to a falconer who establishes an extraordinary tie to his birds. When, in the space of two days, Chindgren loses two birds that he’d been training for years, he is plunged into a profound depression that is only deepened when Jomo, his best bird, slows down because of old age.
In addition to this challenge, Chindgren faces the danger to falconry that the modern world presents. Grouse habitat is being degraded by mining, agriculture, and gas industry interests. And the number of falconers is dwindling—the corps is graying and has few acolytes.
Falconry is a sport that requires persistence, stoicism, and sacrifice; in this captivating account, Dickinson illuminates a fascinating subculture and one of its most hard core personalities.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 40
 Intense and wondrous. March 30, 2009
Stephen Thoemmes (AZ, USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I loved this book for it really opened my eyes to a sport that I have admired but never really looked into. What really stayed with me was the intensity and absolute devotion displayed by Steve Chindgren, a real fighter and unique individual. Though I've long loved Peregrines and Kestrels, I still learned so much more about them. In fact all the data in this book fleshed out this sport and made me realize how serious it is.
One thing that remained in the background of my reading this book was a disquieting sense of urgency and helplessness at habitat destruction and human sprawl. I fear that this will destroy this unique and spectacular sport. It appears that the masses are mindlessly trampling over yet another endangered and beautiful, not just sport, but a way of life.
The Consummate Falconer April 24, 2009
Lance M. Foster (Helena, Montana, USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
When I was about 10 years old, I saw a movie, My Side of the Mountain, and for many years, I dreamed of running away from home, living in a hollow tree in the wilderness, and raising a falcon and becoming a falconer, like the young hero.
When I was 22, I watched Conan the Barbarian, and this was one of the dialogues I memorized by heart:
Mongol General: Hao! Dai ye! We won again! This is good, but what is best in life?
Mongol: The open steppe, fleet horse, falcons at your wrist, and the wind in your hair.
Mongol General: Wrong! Conan! What is best in life?
Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.
Mongol General: That is good! That is good.
Apologies to Genghis Khan, but I had to agree with the Mongol rather than Conan in this case ;-)
The circumstances of my life never really came together for me to become a falconer, although for a brief few weeks I helped in a rehabilitation program, and even to this day, I often see kestrels in the most unlikely of places, which I take as a sign. And so I read this book with great relish, and it allowed me to see through the eyes of a consummate falconer, who sacrifices everything for his path in life, Steve Chindgren. I especially enjoyed the fixed emotion-love-intensity he feels for his birds, yes, the zen of it all, and also the romance, as when he formed a celebration and society around King Frederick II, author of the scripture of falconers, Art of Falconry; Being the De Arte Venandi cum Avibus of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen. It reminded me of the discipline and intensity we usually reserve in our thinking for samurai and saints.
But this is not an over-romanticized tale; it depicts the challenges of bureaucratic ignorance, and of unbelievable habitat loss, and of the deaths of beloved birds (I didn't know that eagles were such deadly foes of the falcons)...and of sacrifices in the family and human relationships. Essentially, this excellent book is really about the beauty of a life dedicated to the perfection of an ancient art. A great book!
Gripping May 3, 2009
G. Moran (Jersey Shore, USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I had little understanding of the world of falconry before I read this book, but I was immediately captivated by the world that Dickinson describes. The falconer's loss and his passion for the sport are palpable. The writing is smooth and beautifully descriptive -- I was standing in the fields, feeling the wind, listening to the calls of these mighty birds or prey. Most of all, I felt a new measure of understanding for the people who are involved in falconry and allow it to consume their lives. It's a fine book that stays with you after the final page.
Good read, and a unique look into the world of falconry May 3, 2009
Bobbi J. Dempsey
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Though I'm not really a "bird person," I was transported into the world of falconry through the author's vivid, detailed descriptions. I developed a new understanding for the falconers and their total (at times obsessive) dedication to the sport. I rooted for them (and their birds) to have a good day in the fields, and at times sympathized with them during emotional moments. Overall, this was an enjoyable and informative read.
A fascinating book that puts you into the heart of falcrony May 3, 2009
Jane Boursaw (Traverse City, MI)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
"Falconer on the Edge" is a fascinating look into a subculture that most people probably know very little about. It's a world filled with hardcore falconers whose lives revolve around their birds and the art of the hunt, an ancient practice that a few passionate souls like Steve Chindgren are keeping alive even in these modern times.
Rachel Dickinson spent time with Chindgren in southwestern Wyoming, capturing the heart and soul of this "small, wiry middle-aged man" sporting a "great shock of reddish blond hair and a craggy, ruggedly handsome face with black-plastic-framed glasses perched on his small nose."
The book is a wonderful narrative that doesn't simply describe Chindgren and his birds; it puts you right into the field with them. After reading "Falconer on the Edge," you'll swear you've been to Wyoming and seen it for yourself. The descriptions are that vivid. I'm glad Dickinson has taken the time to write this book, because the western landscape and falconry itself is changing, thanks to mining, agriculture, and gas industries.
I'll leave you with this passage, describing the scene after Chindgren's bird Jomo has flown directly into a grouse "like a pile driver":
"The soft explosion of feathers falls like a dusting of early-winter snow on the predator and his prey. Disney might portray this whole scene as the circle of life, but this isn't a cartoon, and when we witness it, it pulls on some coded prehistoric gene that still remains from the time when we were hunters and killed because we had to. Steve runs toward the birds to watch the falcon cling to the body of the slain grouse and calmly rip hunks of bloody meat from the still warm breast."
Showing reviews 1-5 of 40
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