When I found this book on the shelves of my local vintage bookstore I thought it was out of place among the pulpy romance novels, westerns, and detective stories. I flipped through it wondering what on earth a saccharine Disney kids story could be doing with so many adult books. I was quite shocked to find Bambi locked in combat, and snapping the horns of his rivals on the first page I turned to. I seem to have forgotten most of the cartoon because other than his mother dying nothing sounds familiar. I'm almost half way through and there have been no rabbits named Thumper, or skunks named Flower. In their place are lush descriptions of nature and unique insights into a life lived in the forest. Not to mention a fair amount of brutality. Whatever cutesy connotations the name Bambi now conjures, they are vastly undeserved. Bambi is a story about a strong young man coming of age. That man just so happens to be a deer.