Soldiers, Hunters, Not Cowboys by Aaron Tucker

Violent, Furious, Not Evil

Soldiers, Hunters, Not Cowboys is an insightful and inquisitive revisiting of both Western and disaster movies, written in two parts, and complete with explosions, a damsel-in-distress, and a lone hero. Except, it’s really only sort of these things.

The first part of the book is an uncomfortable but revealing conversation between Melanie and her unnamed friend at her house. Her guest is having drinks since, as he says, it is nearly his birthday. Melanie is talking about watching the film “The Searchers” (1956) when she was young, and why rewatching it is an exercise in understanding herself and her relationships. She tells him there are ideas about masculinity from the film that still resonates, and she suggests that even if these cliches could be justified, the justification for them is an obligation since they are toxic in a way that is impossible to dismiss as something from the past.

“The movie presents it all as fact too. But it’s not a fact. It is an argument that the movie is making. I am talking about a certain type of masculinity that presents itself as fact.”

“But I’m not sure it’s evil. Evil is something else entirely. …I’m thinking about something more systemic. Violent, furious people. Men. That’s not evil to me.”

“It’s all tangled…”

Throughout her explanation, she is repeatedly interrupted by him. It’s his special day, and he wishes they would go out to a bar. He misses when they used to date years ago, even if it was only four months. He had a complicated relationship with his father. He doesn’t see the connection she is making. He grew up around a lot of violence, and look how he turned out? It is not reasonable to expect John Wayne to be out of touch with the times in which he was living. He owns a gun and has since long before they dated, but never told her. That he isn’t like that. That he is disappointed that he can’t spend the night.

The second part of the book takes place on Monday. Still drunk and incensed, he is awakened by an explosion that has knocked out power, communications, and transportation in Toronto. As his own fear starts to overtake his mind, he begins spinning in hallucinations and fantasies about ‘saving’ her, and what might happen to him in the process. In his daze, he suddenly determines that “[Melanie] must be terrified.”

“I need to get to her, to protect her, there is danger all over”

“But those men outside, hunting, they’re after me”

This story is as sensational as it is compelling. It would be unreasonable to say that a book complicating our ideas about masculinity could, or should, be art for its own sake. Still, it is never protesting or lecturing. You won’t be able to put it down.


Aaron Tucker is the author of three books of poems as well as the novel Y: Oppenheimer, Horseman of Los Alamos (Coach House Books) which was translated by Rachel Martinez into French as Oppenheimer (La Peuplade) in the summer of 2020. He is currently a PhD candidate in the Cinema and Media Studies Department at York University where he is an Elia Scholar, a VISTA Doctoral Scholar and a 2020 Joseph-Armand Bombardier Doctoral Fellow.

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Coach House Books (June 6 2023)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 160 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1552454622
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1552454626

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