A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, Twenty-fifth A...
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Review
"[Maclean] would go to his grave secure in the knowledge that anyone who'd fished with a fly in the Rockies and read his novella on the how and why of it believed it to be the best such manual on the art ever written--a remarkable feat for a piece of prose that also stands as a masterwork in the art of tragic writing."--Philip Connors "Nation "
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Just as Norman Maclean writes at the end of "A River Runs through It" that he is "haunted by waters," so have readers been haunted by his novella. A retired English professor who began writing fiction at the age of 70, Maclean produced what is now recognized as one of the classic American stories of the twentieth century. Originally published in 1976, "A River Runs through It and Other Stories" now celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary, marked by this new edition that includes a foreword by Annie Proulx.
Maclean grew up in the western Rocky Mountains in the first decades of the twentieth century. As a young man he worked many summers in logging camps and for the United States Forest Service. The two novellas and short story in this collection are based on his own experiences--the experiences of a young man who found that life was only a step from art in its structures and beauty. The beauty he found was in reality, and so he leaves a careful record of what it was like to work in the woods when it was still a world of horse and hand and foot, without power saws, "cats," or four-wheel drives. Populated with drunks, loggers, card sharks, and whores, and set in the small towns and surrounding trout streams and mountains of western Montana, the stories concern themselves with the complexities of fly fishing, logging, fighting forest fires, playing cribbage, and being a husband, a son, and a father.
By turns raunchy, poignant, caustic, and elegiac, these are superb tales which express, in Maclean's own words, "a little of the love I have for the earth as it goes by." A first offering from a 70-year-old writer, the basis of a top-grossing movie, and the first original fiction published by the University of Chicago Press, "A River Runs through It and Other Stories" has sold more than a million copies. As Proulx writes in her foreword to this new edition, "In 1990 Norman Maclean died in body, but for hundreds of thousands of readers he will live as long as fish swim and books are made."
"Altogether beautiful in the power of its feeling. . . . As beautiful as anything in Thoreau or Hemingway."--Alfred Kazin, "Chicago Tribune Book World"
"It is an enchanted tale. . . . I have read the story three times now, and each time it seems fuller."-- Roger Sale, "New York Review of Books"
"Maclean's book--acerbic, laconic, deadpan--rings out of a rich American tradition that includes Mark Twain, Kin Hubbard, Richard Bissell, Jean Shepherd, and Nelson Algren. I love its sound."--James R. Frakes, "New York Times Book Review"
"The title novella is the prize. . . . Something unique and marvelous: a story that is at once an evocation of nature's miracles and realities and a probing of human mysteries. Wise, witty, wonderful, Maclean spins his tales, casts his flies, fishes the rivers and the woods for what he remembers from his youth in the Rockies."--"Publishers Weekly"
"Ostensibly a 'fishing story, ' 'A River Runs through It' is really an autobiographical elegy that captivates readers who have never held a fly rod in their hand. In it the art of casting a fly becomes a ritual of grace, a metaphor for man's attempt to move into nature."--Andrew Rosenheim, "The Independent"
Maclean grew up in the western Rocky Mountains in the first decades of the twentieth century. As a young man he worked many summers in logging camps and for the United States Forest Service. The two novellas and short story in this collection are based on his own experiences--the experiences of a young man who found that life was only a step from art in its structures and beauty. The beauty he found was in reality, and so he leaves a careful record of what it was like to work in the woods when it was still a world of horse and hand and foot, without power saws, "cats," or four-wheel drives. Populated with drunks, loggers, card sharks, and whores, and set in the small towns and surrounding trout streams and mountains of western Montana, the stories concern themselves with the complexities of fly fishing, logging, fighting forest fires, playing cribbage, and being a husband, a son, and a father.
By turns raunchy, poignant, caustic, and elegiac, these are superb tales which express, in Maclean's own words, "a little of the love I have for the earth as it goes by." A first offering from a 70-year-old writer, the basis of a top-grossing movie, and the first original fiction published by the University of Chicago Press, "A River Runs through It and Other Stories" has sold more than a million copies. As Proulx writes in her foreword to this new edition, "In 1990 Norman Maclean died in body, but for hundreds of thousands of readers he will live as long as fish swim and books are made."
"Altogether beautiful in the power of its feeling. . . . As beautiful as anything in Thoreau or Hemingway."--Alfred Kazin, "Chicago Tribune Book World"
"It is an enchanted tale. . . . I have read the story three times now, and each time it seems fuller."-- Roger Sale, "New York Review of Books"
"Maclean's book--acerbic, laconic, deadpan--rings out of a rich American tradition that includes Mark Twain, Kin Hubbard, Richard Bissell, Jean Shepherd, and Nelson Algren. I love its sound."--James R. Frakes, "New York Times Book Review"
"The title novella is the prize. . . . Something unique and marvelous: a story that is at once an evocation of nature's miracles and realities and a probing of human mysteries. Wise, witty, wonderful, Maclean spins his tales, casts his flies, fishes the rivers and the woods for what he remembers from his youth in the Rockies."--"Publishers Weekly"
"Ostensibly a 'fishing story, ' 'A River Runs through It' is really an autobiographical elegy that captivates readers who have never held a fly rod in their hand. In it the art of casting a fly becomes a ritual of grace, a metaphor for man's attempt to move into nature."--Andrew Rosenheim, "The Independent"
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Sometimes when an author's words are possessed of such crystalline truth, purity and beauty, it is easier to simply let the words do the talking. These words are from Norman MacLean's wonderful little novella "A River Runs Through it". They sparkle with the same shimmering clarity as a star on the bright clear waters of the Big Blackfoot River in Montana where the author fished.
"It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us."
"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."
Beautiful words that blur the distinction between prose and poetry like the canyon half light. How tragically true it is that we often fail to understand those closest to us. On my computer at work I have these words above a photo of my family. Yes, I have unashamedly girlified my work place. I have in fact out girlied the girlies! These words remind me of just how precious a thing time is and that I am slowly being poured out. I strive to understand my own family and to assemble the building blocks of loving relationships. It is not always easy, and I feel the failure keenly, for it is I that am often to blame. As I run the steep downland hills above the village where I live, I often return in the dark winters gloaming to see the lights of the village twinkling below me. There I stand briefly suspended in time and space, and I am reminded of these words. But these are my words! I too am haunted by waters.
Apart from the Bible these are some of the most powerful and moving words that you are ever likely to read. Highly, highly recommended.
"It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us."
"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."
Beautiful words that blur the distinction between prose and poetry like the canyon half light. How tragically true it is that we often fail to understand those closest to us. On my computer at work I have these words above a photo of my family. Yes, I have unashamedly girlified my work place. I have in fact out girlied the girlies! These words remind me of just how precious a thing time is and that I am slowly being poured out. I strive to understand my own family and to assemble the building blocks of loving relationships. It is not always easy, and I feel the failure keenly, for it is I that am often to blame. As I run the steep downland hills above the village where I live, I often return in the dark winters gloaming to see the lights of the village twinkling below me. There I stand briefly suspended in time and space, and I am reminded of these words. But these are my words! I too am haunted by waters.
Apart from the Bible these are some of the most powerful and moving words that you are ever likely to read. Highly, highly recommended.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The book is three stories, but A River Runs Through It is the pick of the bunch that is as emotionally charged in print as it is in celluloid. The story is about more than fly fishing, but fishing is the glue that binds in this tale. The author captures the majesty of the region perfectly and the joy of being with people that you love doing things that you love on a beautiful summers day.
I would say that this is more evocative than anything else, but one feels that it would have been an honour indeed to have met the author. Enjoy.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
To say that someone is living in the past is usually an insult, but Norman Maclean's early life was so momentous that you could hardly blame him. As the helpful introduction to this work explains, he was living at the end of an era, when the great days of the Wild West and the frontier spirit were coming to an end.
Perhaps above all A River Runs Through It is a hymn to the restorative power of nature. You get the idea that Maclean was not overly impressed with modern life and throughout these stories his voice rings out beautifully, bravely and more than a little sardonically. This a wonderful glimpse of life in the early years of twentieth century rural America.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
wonderment
A really beautiful book full of the most amazing descriptions of fly fishing and of the wilderness around.
The human story was also compelling. Read more
The human story was also compelling. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Liz
Fishing reveals the meaning of life, and other stories...
Norman Maclean published his first work, this collection of three stories, when he was 73. He was an English Professor at the University of Chicago, and its Press broke precedent,... Read more
Published 14 months ago by John P. Jones III
Slow, deep, and teeming with detail...
Those expecting this to be about fly-fishing may well be disappointed, for although fly-fishing is described in rich detail in A River Runs Through It (104 pages), it is not a... Read more
Published on 3 July 2009 by LittleMoon
One quote sticks out...
One passage amoungst many sticks out from this book that is full of wisdom if you take the time to read closely and relate it to the many aspects of your life and the lives of... Read more
Published on 3 Nov 2007 by M. Longazel
This is the funniest tragic story I have ever read.
This is one of my all-time, top five favorite books. I love the way Norman Maclean strings his words together, the way he makes writing about fly fishing and family a ballet of... Read more
Published on 5 Aug 1999
A must read.
I like the way Norman McLean handles the relationship with his brother. It is so vivid and genuine that I can almost see how things happen in front of my own eyes.
Published on 2 July 1999
Belongs in everyone's personal library
Most reviewers dwell more on the detailed information MacLean discusses about fly fishing in Montana in his early years. Read more
Published on 29 Jun 1999
Definantly a must read!!!!
Another astoundingly beautiful book by Norman MacLean. I first read Young Men and Fire, then watched the movie A River Runs Through It, and finally the book by the same title. Read more
Published on 16 April 1999
this book is boring and it makes me feel sleepy
I like fishing but I am not interested in this book.
Published on 31 Mar 1999
Divine
I have been a fly-fisherman since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. I was never able put down my thoughts on Fly-fishing, in the way I wanted to, or the way it meant the most to... Read more
Published on 4 Feb 1999
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