Part 1, Chapters 1 and 2 Summary and Analysis

"Pursuit and Conversation"

In chapter one, the author comes to the end of a frustrating, failed day lying in wait for the kudu (an African antelope) he's been hunting. As he returns to his camp, he stops to see if he can assist an Austrian man (Kandisky) having trouble with his truck. Conversation reveals that Kandinsky knows the author by reputation, and that he doesn't care for the author's sort of hunting. As he narrates his departure from Kandisky, the author draws a clear analogy between hunting and the creative arts. Later, when Kandisky visits the author at his camp, the two men engage in an intense conversation about writing in general and about American writing in particular. There are two spectators to their conversation - the author's wife (referred to in narration as P.O.M...