the one way

books:


	• Ruark Remembered: By the Man Who Knew Him Best Alan Ritchie Sporting Classics, 2007 - 350 pages average customer review:based on 1 review view larger image
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the one way

While Alan Ritchie is no Boswell, he does present a full picture of the man, Robert Ruark. Ruark appeared to be a man larger than life and the attempt to capture the full man, reduced from legend, to appear slightly tarnished, and still accurate, seems a bit contrived. We see Ruark as a nouveau riche, trying desperately to be cool, but full of the shortcomings of an alcholic. While he is interesting, he is not enviable, while he is a big game hunter and an American sportsman, he is an expatriate, concerned with Africa's letdowns to the sportsman, not her independence and freedom. And while he remains married for twenty five years or more, his marital relationship is fraught with holes, infidelities, mysognisim and endless battles. Ritchie's attempt to show the man's numrerous positive traits in this ambience of deception and contrast smacks of gloss, not of a hard shine. It is difficult for an employee who is grateful and subservient to display true objectivity to a boss who is more powerful and thankful for Ritchie's protecting his indescretions and foibles. If Ritchie felt compelled to cover things up in real life, he was even moreso in his employer's death. We beg to find out who was really the culprit in the gutting of the Spanish house, Ruark's mistresses, his wife, or Ruark's own attempt to sabotage his wife's future. He seems capable of anything against her. Ritchie's protection of her, is in essence a complete subservience, because while he owes her nothing, it is apparent he is completely sympathetic to her. And while sympathetic, he seems unable to reach an objectivity necessary to revealing her and her husband.
I feel as if Ritchie lifted a veil and showed us how this thing might be played out, but not the veil that shows the TV drama of how it actually was. Could it be his subservience, his British tightmouthed allegience, or something akin to closet homosexual worship that keeps his opinions and the truth so far from us.
As much as I respect the editor, I find it difficult to praise him as I always find spelling errors and other mishaps in his work. This book is no exception.

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Robert Ruark (1915-1965) ranks, in the minds of most discerning readers, as the finest outdoor writer ever to grace the American literary scene. His is an enduring fame, thanks primarily to three books, The Old Man and the Boy, The Old Man s Boy Grows Older, and an African classic, Horn of the Hunter. Of course, Ruark was also the author of several blockbuster novels, an immensely popular newspaper columnist, a satirist of considerable skill, and a tireless bon vivant. Fame and the ability to crunch out a prodigious amount of first-rate prose on his battered portable typewriter brought him considerable fortune. Now, some two generations after the Ruark s death, Sporting Classics will release a brand new book on the great author. Just recently discovered, the text was written more than forty years ago by Alan Ritchie, who faithfully served as Ruark s personal secretary and advisor for the last fourteen years of his life. The book starts out with a wonderful foreword by legendary African professional hunter Harry Selby who guided Ruark on a number of his safaris. It also features a number of photographs of Ruark that have never before appeared in any book.

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