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Title: Norman Maclean Collection: A River Runs Throught It, on the Big Blackfoot, Young Men & Fire by Norman Maclean, Ivan Doig, John Maclean, Norman MacLean ISBN: 1-56511-443-4 Publisher: HighBridge Company Pub. Date: 29 March, 2001 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 8 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.57 (87 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: I am haunted...
Comment: When, several years ago, I started reading a lot of fishing books, one title kept cropping up in other books. Every author seemed to defer to A River Runs Through It; it was universally acknowledged to be the greatest fishing story ever written. I dutifully sought it out and read it. I'm sure everyone has seen the movie by now, so I won't be giving anything away when I confess that Paul's death upset me so much that, on that first reading, I hated the book. It was like Old Yeller and the MASH where Henry died and Brian's Song all rolled into one. Returning to it better prepared, I simply enjoyed it for the language and for the bittersweet family story it relates and I learned to love it. Then, in 1992, Robert Redford brought the story to the screen and the beauty of the scenery and some terrific performances, combined with the large chunks of narrative taken directly from the book, resulted in one of the better movies of recent years and cemented the book's place in the pantheon of great American stories.
Amazingly, Norman MacLean, who taught English at the University of Chicago for 43 years, did not publish this book until 1976, after retiring from his teaching job in 1973. I don't know whether he had worked on the story throughout his whole life, as was the case with the posthumous book
Young Men and Fire, but the final product has such beautifully sculpted language, that it would not be hard to believe that it is the end result of four decades of effort. Here is the famous opening:
In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. He told us about Christ's disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman.
And, of course, after Paul's death, Norman's father urges him:
Why don't you make up a story and the people to go with it? Only then will you understand what happened and why. It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us.
And the story concludes:
Now nearly all those I loved and did not understand when I was young are dead, but I still reach out to them.
Of course, now I am too old to be much of a fisherman, and some friends think I shouldn't. Like many fly fishermen in western Montana where the summer days are almost Arctic in length, I often do not start fishing until the cool of the evening. Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that fish will rise.
Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters.
And in between these memorable passages, MacLean unfolds a timeless story of fathers and sons and brothers and their often futile attempts to understand one another and the way in which sport can provide a tie, sometimes the only tie, between them. You will be haunted by the affecting story and by MacLean's crystalline prose in this very nearly perfect book.
GRADE: A+
Rating: 4
Summary: Not Only Fly-Fishing
Comment: A River Runs Through It is a novella that takes the art of exposition writing a step further by using vivid imagery to describe the scenes in which the main characters spend most of their time: the rivers of Montana.
Due to the amount of exposition writing when first beginning to read this novella I felt as if I may have, mistakenly, picked-up a newer version of Moby Dick, a book I did not enjoy. However, I soon realized that Maclean was not trying to teach the reader how to fly fish as Melville attempted to teach the readers of Moby Dick to hunt whales. Instead, Maclean is simply describing the art and precision that accompanies the sport of fly-fishing, I was able to sit back and let the river run over me.
This novella is a wonderful reminder of the simplicity of another time when families lived close to each other and there was always an outdoor retreat where families could heal their wounds while becoming one with nature. The art of fly-fishing is the sanctuary in which Paul, Norman and their father heal their wounds and bond as men.
Fishing, in the Maclean family, is depicted as having the ability to reunite the family. No matter how long one brother has been absent from the family the River is able to smooth away all those months and years of betrayal. Not only is the River where sibling rivalry plays out, it is also the setting of brotherly love. The characters have an intimate language constructed within their fishing techniques that is obvious from the first images of fishing that Maclean shares with the reader.
The two brothers, Paul and Norman, were raised loving two things outside of family: God and fly-fishing. They grew-up with a love of fly-fishing, which surpassed most other things in the world. Paul, the more advanced fly fisher in the family is graceful and majestic in his technique on the water. He is also the brother who gets into trouble with alcohol and gambling addictions that often land him in serious trouble. His brother, Norman on the other hand is a steady, married man that although he loves fishing, he has realized that growing-up and becoming a man is important, hence he has other responsibilities that do not allow him to fish all his free time away.
This novella is crafted not only around the art of fly fishing, but also around Norman's dead-beat brother-in-law Neal and Neal's hatred of fly-fishing. Neal is a troubled man whose sister and mother are simply trying to get him on the right track. These well-intention women feel that sending Neal out fly-fishing with Paul and Norman would help Neal turn his life around. Although their intentions are noble, these women soon realize that fly-fishing may not be the answer.
I absolutely adore this novella. I have never seen the movie and I prefer to keep it that way. Movies are never as good as the original novel and I would hate to ruin perfection by seeing Hollywood's rendition of fly-fishing in Montana. I encourage you to read and enjoy this novel while attempting to understand the deeper meaning that Norman Maclean is trying to share with you, the reader. ENJOY!
Rating: 5
Summary: A Beautiful account of the American West in a changing time
Comment: A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean is a beautiful recollection of the authors life living in the wilderness of western Montana. Norman's father teaches him and his brother Paul the art of flyfishing. He teaches it as a form of perfection, but Paul cannot extend it into the rest of his life and in the end, nobody could help him. The river brings three extroidinary but different men together. The last sentence "im haunted by waters" is a beautiful yet erie sum of the entire book. A beautiful piece of american literature.
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Title: Young Men & Fire by Norman Maclean ISBN: 0226500624 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title:A River Runs Through It ASIN: 0767836359 Publisher: Columbia/Tristar Studios Pub. Date: 02 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $12.26 |
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Title: On the Big Blackfoot by Norman Maclean, John MacLean ISBN: 1565113632 Publisher: HighBridge Company Pub. Date: April, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The River Why, Twentieth-Anniversary Edition by David James Duncan ISBN: 1578050847 Publisher: Sierra Club Books Pub. Date: 05 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison ISBN: 0385285965 Publisher: Delta Pub. Date: 15 April, 1980 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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