The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

I learned of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter from the year-end episode of Mapping the Zone. In the podcast, four friends discuss the works of Thomas Pynchon. They took a break in the final episode of 2025 to champion their favorite reads of the year. And here we are.

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is a Native American vampire novel. It’s not the sort of book that I would usually read, but I enjoyed the historical undercurrent and admired the research that went into making it feel authentic to Native American culture.  

Stephen Graham Jones ultimately wrote a revenge story. A good quote sets the stage for the story early in the book: The depravity of man’s heart knows no floor, and everyone in this hard country has a sordid chapter in the story of their life, that they’re trying either to atone for, or stay ahead of. It’s what binds us one to the other.

In this case, the pastor Arthur Beaucarne (aka Three Persons) is bound to Good Stab (the Native American vampire) through atrocities committed in the past. For that, he must pay. 

I love the irony of that pastor who feels guilty for eating too much bread but has erased from his mind the role he played in massacring Native Americans. It’s also interesting that Good Stab seeks absolution—and revenge—in the “napikwan’s” house of prayer. Where else could he go? 

While the book didn’t deliver a long list of memorable quotes—I didn’t expect it to—I appreciate this line for how close it cuts to the wisdom of James Hollis: We don’t choose the shape or meter of our struggles, however. uOur duty, insofar as this aging pastor can tell, is to simply endure them, and, when and if opportunity arises, overcome them.

I laughed out loud towards the end of the book when Good Stab referred to a sturgeon as a boss fish. It definitely seemed out of character, but why not?