Thunder in the Mountains

August 15, 2014
A veteran journalist recounts his upbringing within a culture of guns. At the beginning, Collins claims that this is "not an antigun book." However, the book is not entirely pro-gun either, as the author is careful to remain an observer without too much editorializing. Recounting his childhood in small-town Nevada, Collins portrays his affection for the rugged individualism of the Western lifestyle. He recalls his first goose hunting trip at the age of 4, making homemade fish oil by burying a trash can filled with fish for several months, and even spying on local cathouse women sunbathing topless. The other aspect of the romantic West that attracted Collins: guns. The author describes the gun as America's "one constant companion," and that was certainly true of his own upbringing. In particular, one hunting expedition proved an early example of the danger of guns, and it serves as the backbone of his narrative. Barely a teenager, Collins accidentally shot himself in his foot with a hunting rifle and had to endure his injury for more than eight hours as he traveled out of the wilderness to the nearest hospital. The author was lucky; had the shot entered only a fraction of an inch in the other direction, he might have lost his foot. In his remembrance, however, others were not so fortunate. Collins recalls numerous personal experiences of senseless violence caused by guns, sometimes killing and other times severely disabling. (Collins himself had another close call with a loaded shotgun he was sure he'd emptied.) At times, he tries to justify our persistent love affair with guns by claiming that "guns are part of our country's creation myth" and providing fanciful historical anecdotes meant to contextualize the endless violence, but it's hard to see how the author can remain so aloof and indifferent to guns and gun culture considering how intimately he has been affected by them. Despite his personal connection to guns, Collins is frustratingly unopinionated about the elephant in the room.

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August 1, 2014

The tragic school shooting in Newtown, CT, motivated Collins, a California-based entrepreneur, to express memoir-style how he believes America was "battle born" into a culture of gun violence. The book centers on how the author was emotionally and physically traumatized after accidentally shooting himself in the foot as a teenager. To illustrate how this violence permeated his life and the American experience, Collins recounts episodes of gun accidents and firearm suicides--with which he has either a personal or literary connection to the victims--along with historical accounts of gun violence in the West. He describes gun violence as an epidemic, glacial in momentum and not easily stopped. Offering no solutions or remedies, Collins leaves the heavy lifting of finding a resolution to his readers. VERDICT This well-written book will appeal to those interested in the history of firearms and the everlasting impact of gun accidents. However, the author's experience is strictly focused on the West, reflecting his Nevada roots and his corporate experience in California.--Mark Jones, Mercantile Lib., Cincinnati

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2014
Last year's Gun Guys, by Dan Baum, explored America's gun culture: its enthusiasts, its debates, its personalities. Collins' new memoir inevitably covers some of the same ground, but it's a more personal story, focusing (mostly) on the author's own family and friends, exploring how their lives have been affected in various ways by America's attitude toward firearms. The story, which recounts the author's childhood in a family in which guns were a part of everyday life, is punctuated by tragedy: a friend is seriously injured by a gunshot to the head in a hunting accident; another friend's father commits suicide by shooting himself; the author shoots himself in the foot in another hunting accident; and so on. It's not really a book about the broader side of America's gun culture; it's a book about the way a man's life was shaped by that culture and how gun violence touched his life. Collins views a subject that elicits seemingly endless topics for debate, and gives it a single, highly personal point of view: this is how all of that impacted my life. A very interesting addition to the gun literature.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)