I love a good memoir, and THE DEER CAMP is a damn good one. And a Michigan memoir to boot, which makes it even more special to this ol' Michigander.

Dean Kuipers gives the dysfunctional family memoir a special twist with his obvious interest in not just hunting (and fishing), but in ecology. He approaches his account of the problems of his family from the unique standpoint of an ecologist, putting man smack in the middle of a vast ecosystem, one that he must deal with or die - or perhaps go insane, if he falls too far outside the natural order of things, or becomes too removed or separated from the earth and all of its diverse elements and life forms.

Kuipers grew up in and around Kalamazoo, the oldest of three boys. His father, Bruce, was a strict Calvinist and a womanizer. Er, strike that 'strict,' maybe. So the three boys and their mother, Nancy, were often left to fend for themselves. And often, when their mother would take their father back, the family would move to another house or neighborhood for a "fresh start." So Dean learned to be independent and self-reliant at a pretty young age. The one thing he and his brothers could share with their dad was a love of the woods, hunting and fishing. But it wasnt enought to save the marriage. Their parents divorced in 1988, by which time Dean had gotten out and moved to New York to pursue his own interests of literature, music, journalism and ecology. The book is chock full of references to writers who influenced him, from Edward Abbey and Aldo Leopold, to Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, with liberal doses of Jim Harrison and his buddy Tom McGuane {both Michigan writers) and others sprinkled in too. And I recognized some of the musical stuff too - the Motley Crue, Judas Priest, Jane's Addiction and other artists and groups whose 'noise' once blasted from my own kids' rooms thirty-plus years ago.

Kuipers has plenty to say about his relationship to the Christian Reform Church, which is a dominant sect around Kalamazoo, Holland, Zeeland, etc. where both of his parents also grew up. But, from my own personal experience, religious belief and practice is always a "work in progress," especially if one reads widely, and Kuipers is certainly a voracious reader and deep thinker, as well as a very talented writer. THE DEER CAMP is an in-depth look at the Kuipers family, even back a couple generations, as Dean tells about his father and his uncles and their very strict farmer father. The author's ecologist friends and colleagues will probably be horrified at how Bruce and his brothers shot and killed just about anything that moved in the countryside around their farm, even harmless things like herons and feral cats, finding an escape from the drudgery of farm work in hunting and fishing.

Bruce Kuipers and his brothers bought the hunting camp on the southern edge of the Manistee National Forest in 1989. Bruce (who later bought his brothers' shares) saw the camp as an opportunity to repair the broken relationship with his sons, following the divorce. But for years he enforced very strict rules about the use of the camp - family only, no friends, no liquor, no cigarettes (that Calvinism), not even any dogs. And Bruce refused to change anything in the camp's flora or vegetation either, convinced that the sandy soil wouldn't grow anything anyway, though Dean and Brett begged him to let them try planting other kinds of trees, ground cover and forage for game birds. (Joe, they youngest son, was plagued with countless mental and emotional problems, along with suicidal episodes.) Because the land here often takes center stage, as Dean watches the results of their efforts and of nature itself, waxing poetic about the new growth - aspen, Scots pine, beech, birch, maples and more - that finally broke through once Bruce relented and assented to their suggestions -

"Here was the sand that I had watched in the darkness, expressing itself. here its thoughts, its urgency. we had interrupted the pine plantations for the first time in over fifty years, and the sand took advantage to press from its watery glacial heart exactly the trees that it wanted all along, the mix that was implied by plants and animals that made up the surrounding forest."

Dean Kuipers would probably think it an understatement to simply say that "everything is connected," because he is so invested in his studies of eco-philosophy, eco-psychology, the eco-system of all of life, etc. Indeed, some of his eco-commentary goes a bit over my head, but my simple interpretation is, well, "everything is connected." And is was very gratifying to learn that the land of the deer camp was so instrumental in healing many of the difficulties and years-long rifts of the Kuipers clan.

THE DEER CAMP is simply one helluva good book, filled with stories of hunting, fishing, heartaches and joys, but most of all it is, in the end, about family. The Kuipers family is quite a tribe. Thanks for sharing their story, Dean. I'm gonna tell all my friends about it. I'm not a hunter myself, but hunters will love this book too. This is just plain great writing!

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER ( )