by Tobias Wolff
First published 1983
Kenny, Tub, and Frank venture into the snowy woods outside Spokane for what should be a routine hunting trip. Kenny carries himself with brutal confidence, while Tub struggles to keep pace with the group, enduring constant mockery about his weight. Frank rounds out the trio as the most direct speaker among them. As the day unfolds, each man reveals different sides of his character. The expedition takes a deadly turn when Tub's rifle fires and Kenny falls wounded. What follows seems like a race to get Kenny medical help, but Tub and Frank make bewildering stops at a diner and then a roadhouse instead of heading straight to the hospital. Their truck eventually carries them away from town, moving in the opposite direction from where Kenny needs to go. The winter landscape becomes witness to how quickly loyalty can shift and how men respond when crisis strips away their pretenses.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, adventure, contemporary
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-friends, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Spokane
Period: 20th-century
Paperback · Macmillan
Content warnings: violence