SOURCE: Coan, Jim. Review of The Hermit's Story, by Rick Bass. Library Journal 127, no. 10 (1 June 2002): 198.

In the following review, Coan praises the stories of The Hermit's Story, which he describes as entertaining and thought-provoking.

In his new collection [The Hermit's Story], novelist and nature writer Bass (e.g., Colter) focuses a naturalist's eye not only on the frozen lakes and interplay of predator and prey often found in his work but also on the ebb and flow of human emotions and relationships. Among several selections set in a remote region of northern Montana is the title story, in which a couple and a pack of dogs, lost in a winter storm, almost miraculously find refuge beneath the ice on a frozen lake. Failed or troubled marriages figure throughout, and the male characters often ponder lost love while deeply involved in more immediate tasks, like fighting fires or helping...