Stag’s story

Press, 8 November 1980, Page 17

Stag’s story

Stag. By Philip Holden. Hodder and Stoughton, 1980. 156 pp. $9.95.

There is no way an author could write about deer in New Zealand and exclude the hunting and killing, Philip Holden warns his readers in an introduction to this novel. For the first half of this moving story of a stag and a man almost no animal besides the central character survives. Death and disaster are described in gory derail. For all that, “Stag” Is a story of survival, told from the points of view of the hunter and “ whitepatch’', a magnificent 16-pointer. Holden succeeds in taking readers inside the perceptions and behaviour of the stag, as well as capturing the flavour of weather and scenery ip New Zealand's mountains. ‘ . 4 The stag becomes the central character, easily distinguished from other stags (by reader and huriter alike) by the spread of his antlers and his patch; The stag’s habits, needs, moods, and body changes are carefully described, as well as the risks and sacrifices of the hunter as he pursues a magnificent trophy in the last days of the hunting season on his “block . The ending is as satisfactory as it is unpredictable. — Lorna Buchanan.