You would be amazed at the number of people who ask me if I read every book before it goes on the shelf.

I wish!

But with roughly 30,000 books at McClintic alone, it’s just not possible. So I depend on others to help out, by reading books and then sharing their thoughts and opinions. This week, I’d like to share a review with you, written by Dick Evans of Hillsboro. Mr. Evans read the book “Bambi and the Supremes” by Joel Rosenthal, another Hillsboro resident. Here is his review.

“Critics are men who watch a battle from a high place then come down and shoot the survivors.”—Ernest Hemingway.

“With the caveat clearly in mind, I nonetheless risk reviewing this cautionary tale knowing full well there always may be unanticipated consequences of any action.

This book is not about a Hollywood fawn or an aging rock group. It is about the hubris of a West Virginia state agency (i.e. Division of Natural Resources) in its attempted legal vendetta against Joel Rosenthal and his Point of View Farm animal rescue facility near Hillsboro in Pocahontas County.

The incident which culminated in the writing of this book occurred in 2005 when a young fawn was brought to Point of View Farm by two men from Raleigh County. What followed for the next four years through the judicial system is the subject of this amazing book. Rosenthal was charged with criminal possession of wildlife by this state agency. Rosenthal decided to challenge the intransigence of this agency which spent hundreds of hours and thousands of taxpayer dollars defending an erroneous magistrate court decision and fine of $50 which would be outrageous enough, but to then be so incompetent as to lose the case at the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals only adds insult to injury. That Rosenthal, a lay person untrained in the law, was able to educate himself sufficiently to argue successfully before the state’s highest court is Herculean testament to human determination in the face of judicial error and duplicity.

So, why should you read this book? Because—even if you don’t like the author’s personal style—the story he tells is a reminder of the occasional, vindictive abuse of power by some public officials. And that it is still possible in a democracy to win against such odds.”

Many thanks to Dick Evans for this review. You can purchase “Bambi and the Supremes” online from Amazon.com or at the City National Bank in Marlinton. You may also check the book out from the McClintic Library as soon as I get a copy cataloged.