Author Mike Gaddis is well known to sportsmen for his many articles and essays in such magazines as Sporting Classics. His collections, Legend’s Legacy and Turning for Home are vibrant, emotional and poetic. Mike Gaddis is a fine writer, and I am quite fond of his work. Jenny Willow is a work of fiction, published in 2002 by the Lyon’s Press. Jenny Willow is what many will refer to as a dog story, but it’s more than that. Gaddis himself is a hunter and owner of multiple generations of setters – bird dogs - which informs Jenny Willow. Gaddis has been hailed as among the best “gun dog writers” out there, along with Tom Davis (see my post on The Tattered Autumn Sky) although I’m not in sync with that label. I think of him simply as a writer and a sportsman. He is certainly part of the editorial group associated with Sporting Classics magazine, and his writing appears regularly in that magazine. Jenny Willow is a great book and worth your time. 83-year-old Ben Willow is a widower and decides to take on a setter pup one more time. He longs for the years when his dogs were his companions, and the pheasant hunting up in the hills. This novel is about his relationship with the dog he names Jenny, and it’s about love, life and how time changes us all. Ben’s story is linked to that of his friend, Clyde Wood, and how Clyde takes it on himself to do justice by Ben and Jenny, too. To say more might reveal too much of the plot. Mike Gaddis has created a gem of a novel, lush with imagery, and poignant in many ways. It’s not a tear-jerker, not exactly, but you’ll find yourself catching your breath now and again and maybe wiping away a speck that gets caught in your eye. There are certain sportsmen whose books I treasure; writers like Guy de la Valdene, Peter Capstick, Robert Ruark, and Tom Davis, but Mike Gaddis is always at the top of the list.
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