The Last Coon Hunter by Joe Crance (Guest Review by Tarren Young)

The Last Coon Hunter

by Joe Crance

Reviewed by Tarren Young

Gosh, it’s hard to know where to start sometimes when reviewing a book. You want to not only do the story justice but the author as well. Sometimes the words flow and other times you have to gather your thoughts, grapple and wonder what the heck just happened when you finished the story. What happened is the fact that I sobbed my way through this story in 8 days.          

I bought Joe Crance’s book The Last Coon Hunter back in December with all kinds of crazy notions that the other pile of local authors I needed to read would be read in the month or shortly thereafter!

This is where we all laugh because I’m a mother! At Christmas! Trying to read! I wonder if that thought even crossed my brain? I don’t think there was any comprehension in that idea at all. Nope. None whatsoever.

But I did run into Joseph one night in late January, and he asked me if I’d read the book yet. Sadly, at that point, I hadn’t even opened it. Sigh. Sometimes I wish I was a faster reader or that I could read two books at one time. But I believe we are meant to read the books we are meant to read at certain times in our lives for a reason. I don’t know why, we just do. I opened the book that night and was immediately drawn into the character’s lives, desperate to know more!

Besides getting the kick in the pants I needed, this story also worked well for our book club theme for February of a historical book with a story set at least 20 years before. The Last Coon Hunter spans the years 1976 to 1993, and fits well into that theme.

I am an active reader and my copy is well loved, with several notations and highlights. Of course a few things could be tightened up here and there, but that is the case with every author. Even J.K. Rowling isn’t perfect! We all have to start somewhere, and Joe Crance started with characters that are real and heartfelt from page one.

I loved every character--well, almost every character--(I won’t spoil it for those who want to read it) from the beginning. Each of them had flaws, which is nice, because no one wants to read about flat, stagnant characters. I really don’t think I could sit and pick a favorite character. It would be like trying to tell me I had to pick a favorite child. There’s no way I could do it.

Besides the characters, I have a very soft spot for the setting of The Last Coon Hunter. Though I did not directly grow up in Painted Post, my paternal grandfather worked at Dresser Rand and my paternal grandmother worked at Corning Glass. Growing up in Tioga County, PA, Painted Post was literally my backyard.

Oddly enough though, The Last Coon Hunter reminded me more of my maternal grandfather than anything. The way the characters talked and interacted with each other, their dialects, brought to mind my maternal grandpa who was born on the homestead, in the holler, in Little Marsh, PA and was a logger with horses all his life.

My grandpa not only talked like the father, Jacob Ernst, in Crance’s book with certain dialects, but was full of life wisdom along the way. And you can bet, the life lessons that my grandpa and Jacob Ernst peppered through life and through The Last Coon Hunter story, could and did make you take a step back and realize just how much truth was in such a short sentence.

I will honestly say that I did not expect to like this book as much as I did, much less fall in love with it. Joe Crance is a natural born storyteller, not many people are, and he has only gotten better from here. His story telling style captured my heart. His characters are still lingering there as he weaves a story much like my own grandpa did. 

What I’m coming to realize is that I will never have the time to hear my grandpa’s stories again, and a healing took place through this book that I did not know I needed, and for that, I am grateful.