The Old Man's Boy Grows Older, Robert Ruark

“There ain’t but two things really worthwhile,” the Old Man continued. “Anticipation and remembrance. But in order to remember, you have to include the execution of the anticipation.”

I am a big fan of Robert Ruark’s books.  I recently finished Something of Value, which I would rate as one of the best novels I have ever read.  I had previously read The Old Man and the Boy which was one of my favorite books of all time; however, I do not rate it as a first-class novel like Something of Value or Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls and East of Eden by Steinbeck, which all are works of literary genius.  

The Old Man and the Boy and its sequel, The Old Man’s Boy Grows Older, reads more like a series of short stories and antidotes.  The reason I enjoy them so much is because I grew up in rural South Carolina doing a lot of the same things as the main character in the book, and I had two old sage grandfathers that had served in the World Wars and were from rural areas in North Carolina and they remind me of the “Old Man.”  The book is nostalgic to me even though Ruark is writing of a time that predated my years as a young boy. I believe a lot of what he wrote about, the “old ways” were coming to an end about the time I was a young boy and now those day are a distant past as the technological revolution has changed forever the way young people today grow up.

Both books are similar, I suspect that Ruark wrote the sequel simply because I assume the material probably came to him easily and the fist book was a great commercial success so why not continue the series.  While Something of Value would have been a difficult book to write as it has a sophisticated and developed plot and I am sure took a lot of skill and editing to put together, I can imagine the ‘Old Man and the Boy books’ came quite easily to Ruark because almost every chapter can stand alone as a short story or antidote and I would imagine he had a lot of fun writing these books as he recalled the memory of his childhood.  The books are somewhat autobiographic in nature and give a lot of insight to the character and upbringing of the author. 

I cannot imagine anyone not enjoying both books in the series.  For me they read easily and are full of sage wisdom and life lessons.  I believe that the book will especially resonate with people like me who were born before cell phones and computers and grew up in the rural parts of the country where boys spent their summers and weekends playing outside, fishing, hunting, camping and in the company of rustic men.  I would think the books should be enjoyable to anyone and offer good life lessons; however I know that I read these books with the sentimental lens as a man that has relived parts of his childhood through the pages and stories contained in these books.  If you grew up in the rural South and were born any time prior to 1970 I cannot imagine that this book would not send you down memory lane!