A River Runs Through It and Other Stories

 

A River Runs Through It and Other Stories
A River Runs Through It and Other Stories
by Authors: Norman MacLean , Annie Proulx
Released: June, 2003
ISBN: 0226500667
Paperback

Sales Rank: 17,819
List price: $12.00
Our price: $9.60 (You save: $2.4)
Book > A River Runs Through It and Other Stories > Customer Reviews:
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A River Runs Through It and Other Stories > Customer Review #1:
This book packs a lifetime of living in a fishing tale.

A River Runs Through It is a story of the heart of a man and the passion for life that runs through all men. Some of us may not be aware of this when we look at our lives of struggle and mediocrity. Others may say this is a dreamers attitude. Norman Maclean shows us how it is as natural as a river, and as powerful as a fist . This book is about men, and growing into manhood. It uses the river both as metaphor and as the dramatic backdrop for a life of a man. It is written as if every word was distilled to its purest essence, and reads as a drink of the finest wine. I read it sentence by sentence and went over many passages simply to savor the view and the feel it created in me. Read it and treasure it and give it to another man you may care about.

A River Runs Through It and Other Stories > Customer Review #2:
Poetic, magnificent, lyrical

Norman MacLeans A river Runs Through It is a moving story written in lyrical prose. Yet I have to give it only four stars because the "other stories" included in the book really pale in comparison.

A River Runs Through It has all the majesty and beauty of the American West written with the deep emotion and reverance MacLean attaches to fly-fishing (he compares it to religion). The other stories ("Logging and Pimping" and "USFS 1919") relate to MacLeans experiences working in the Montana Rockies with the Forest Service, and for some reason did not move me as the former story did. His relationship with his brother in A River Runs Through It particularly spoke to me.

All of MacLeans stories are good, but it is MacLeans easygoing narrative, vivid prose and almost spiritual way in which he turns a phrase that makes this book so special. It is an outstanding example of modern American writing, and should be read for such - not fishing.



A River Runs Through It and Other Stories > Customer Review #3:
Ten stars. He makes me jealous of his talent

Im a writer, and occasionally I write a sentence or paragraph - or even several pages, now and then - that I think read quite well. But then, when I read the writing of someone like Normal Maclean, I consider throwing in the towel in recognition of the fact that, no matter how long I try, Ill never write that beautifully.
Of course, the title story in this rather small book, A River Runs Through It, is known to the majority of literate people in the US, and not just because of the marvelous movie made from the novella. But this book has other stories as well. Maclean used his teenage experience working for logging operations and the US Forestry Service as the foundation for a couple of the other loooong stories included in this collection. And, get this: even the Acknowledgments section is worth a careful read; it reads like another essay, in itself.
Normal Maclean, to me, seems to have some of the attributes of E. B. White, specifically the ability to take something concrete and mundane, like fly fishing or packing mules for a 3-day walk into the Montana mountains, and, with the lyricism and beauty and skill of his writing, make it soar into the ethereal world of Universal Truth.
Dont believe me? Read it and see for yourself.

 
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