SOURCE: “Slices of Wildlife,” in Sewanee Review, Vol. 99, No. 2, April, 1991, pp. 323–24.

In the excerpt that follows, Miller positively assesses The Deer Pasture as a lighthearted yet introspective narrative.

Fresh out of college and immured in an office in Jackson, Mississippi, Bass looks back fondly on annual family deer-hunting forays. The stories in The Deer Pasture are raucous and salty—truly Texan, but reminiscent of that lovable desert rat and anarchist, Edward Abbey (who was conscripted for back-jacket commentary). Hunting, at least in this version, is decidedly social, a male-bonding ritual rather than an occasion for solitary reverie. Actually that’s not entirely fair: there’s a measure of male-female bonding in Bass’s book, too. We meet grandmothers, mothers, aunts, and girl friends; in fact the book is ably illustrated with casual, evocative sketches by a woman whom Bass dates, Elizabeth Hughes. Bass’s stories have the feel...