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Legends of the Fall
New York Times bestselling author Jim Harrison was one of America’s most beloved and critically acclaimed writers. The classic Legends of the Fall is Harrison at his most a striking collection of novellas written with exceptional brilliance and a ferocious love of life.
The title novella, “Legends of the Fall”—which was made into the film of the same name—is an epic, moving tale of three brothers fighting for justice in a world gone mad. Moving from the raw landscape of early twentieth-century Montana to the blood-drenched European battlefields of World War I and back again to Montana, Harrison’s powerful story explores the theme of revenge and the actions to which people resort when their lives or goals are threatened, painting an unforgettable portrait of the twentieth-century man.
Also including the novellas “Revenge” and “The Man Who Gave Up His Name,” Legends of the Fall confirms Jim Harrison’s reputation as one of the finest American voices of his generation.
The title novella, “Legends of the Fall”—which was made into the film of the same name—is an epic, moving tale of three brothers fighting for justice in a world gone mad. Moving from the raw landscape of early twentieth-century Montana to the blood-drenched European battlefields of World War I and back again to Montana, Harrison’s powerful story explores the theme of revenge and the actions to which people resort when their lives or goals are threatened, painting an unforgettable portrait of the twentieth-century man.
Also including the novellas “Revenge” and “The Man Who Gave Up His Name,” Legends of the Fall confirms Jim Harrison’s reputation as one of the finest American voices of his generation.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
About the author
Jim Harrison
167 books1,378 followersJim Harrison was born in Grayling, Michigan, to Winfield Sprague Harrison, a county agricultural agent, and Norma Olivia (Wahlgren) Harrison, both avid readers. He married Linda King in 1959 with whom he has two daughters.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
His awards include National Academy of Arts grants (1967, 68, 69), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1969-70), the Spirit of the West Award from the Mountain & Plains Booksellers Association, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007).
Much of Harrison's writing depicts sparsely populated regions of North America with many stories set in places such as Nebraska's Sand Hills, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Montana's mountains, and along the Arizona-Mexico border.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
His awards include National Academy of Arts grants (1967, 68, 69), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1969-70), the Spirit of the West Award from the Mountain & Plains Booksellers Association, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007).
Much of Harrison's writing depicts sparsely populated regions of North America with many stories set in places such as Nebraska's Sand Hills, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Montana's mountains, and along the Arizona-Mexico border.
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January 24, 2024
IL SICILIANO
Regia di Edward Zwick, 1994.
Da due di questi tre racconti sono nati film che mi viene da definire esagerati, di quelli che facilmente inciampano nel comico involontario, quando non addirittura nel ridicolo: Legends of the Fall – Vento di passioni e Revenge – Vendetta.
Regia di Tony Scott, 1990.
I film, come i racconti, secondo me addensano gli aspetti della letteratura di Jim Harrison che mal si legano al mio gusto: stile artificioso e pretenzioso, tinte forti, testosterone, quando non machismo, mancanza d’ironia, una generale sensazione di prendersi maledettamente sul serio.
Dissento dal facile parallelo Harrison-Hemingway, il secondo scrittore di ben altra statura: i tratti possono assomigliarsi, ma in Harrison diventano presto deriva negativa, difetto.
La vendetta ritorna, non appare solo nel racconto omonimo: anche quello più celebre, Legends of the Fall – Vento di passioni, racconta una saga familiare, cento anni e più generazioni nella vita dei Ludlow, dove l’elemento vendetta è quanto mai presente. E sempre acquista facile venatura sicula (l’esagerazione cui accennavo).
La terza stella è perché nonostante tutto, i tre racconti si lasciano leggere con un modesto grado di piacevolezza.
Regia di Edward Zwick, 1994.
Da due di questi tre racconti sono nati film che mi viene da definire esagerati, di quelli che facilmente inciampano nel comico involontario, quando non addirittura nel ridicolo: Legends of the Fall – Vento di passioni e Revenge – Vendetta.
Regia di Tony Scott, 1990.
I film, come i racconti, secondo me addensano gli aspetti della letteratura di Jim Harrison che mal si legano al mio gusto: stile artificioso e pretenzioso, tinte forti, testosterone, quando non machismo, mancanza d’ironia, una generale sensazione di prendersi maledettamente sul serio.
Dissento dal facile parallelo Harrison-Hemingway, il secondo scrittore di ben altra statura: i tratti possono assomigliarsi, ma in Harrison diventano presto deriva negativa, difetto.
La vendetta ritorna, non appare solo nel racconto omonimo: anche quello più celebre, Legends of the Fall – Vento di passioni, racconta una saga familiare, cento anni e più generazioni nella vita dei Ludlow, dove l’elemento vendetta è quanto mai presente. E sempre acquista facile venatura sicula (l’esagerazione cui accennavo).
La terza stella è perché nonostante tutto, i tre racconti si lasciano leggere con un modesto grado di piacevolezza.
March 30, 2019
Paradise Lost and Found and Lost Again
People, but mostly men, are fairly hapless creatures who engage themselves in situations that they don’t have a clue about - love, marriage and war are favourites. These themes are perennial, epic, even biblical. But it’s all been written about before. Not that many notice the repitition. Here are three stories of classic haplessness and its consequences, written in a suitably hapless manner - with enough machismo, firearms, hunting dogs, and quails, lots of quails, to keep anyone happy over a rainy weekend..
The first story is an update of the Genesis myth about the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden. The principle difference from the original is that Legends of the Fall portrays a gnostic Demi-god not the serpent as the villain. This change allows the disgraced couple to fight back rather than simply submit to their punishments. And fight they do, with the combined cunning of James Bond and Mata Hari. Lots of righteous violence and retribution. I said it was biblical, didn’t I?
Of course this is more than a bit ironic. But is the irony mine or Harrison’s? Either way I think the link to Genesis makes Legends of the Fall at least somewhat interesting as a literary object. A handsome couple are made a good deal less handsome by a god-like international drug-lord and banished from the their idyllic Eden. What the Lord hadn’t counted on was the sexual devotion of the man to the woman - an hormonal mis-calibration on his part perhaps. They were prototypes after all in both cases.
The trick for dealing with a psychopathic god who thinks he holds all the cards, as in he of the Old Testament or his Mexican equivalent, is to be more willing to die than he is. Mere homesickness doesn’t generate such an attitude. In fact one must lack reason altogether lest calculation inhibit action. Abelard’s intelligence is what prevented him from rescuing his Heloise. He simply thought about her too much.
But ultimately, as in Genesis, everyone is disappointed. Even the Lord “lived as a victim, albeit prosperous.” No one comes out alive, do they? What we’re left with are regrets. Didn’t God regret his creation when he sent his flood? And didn’t he then regret the flood? We all tend to get too attached to things.
Then there’s the second tale, somewhat less sad, redemptive even. This one echoes the biblical story of Abraham’s Son Jacob, his adolescent pining, and working, away over years to gain the hand (and other parts) of his beloved Rachel. The accidents of human affection are not often kind. As with Jacob and Rachel, so with Nordstrom and Laura. He sees her, she ignores him. He sees her again, she plots his capture.
Finally the mystery of sex becomes overwhelming and they are blissfully united... until the mystery of its mystery with the same person becomes less mysterious over the years. Revenge is the only reasonable motive to have after years of miserable effort crowned by profound buyer’s regret. But revenge against whom? A victim is, of course, providentially provided, with suitable character flaws to justify his annihilation. But where’s the necessary killer instinct to carry out the task at hand?
Timing is everything. A mid-life crisis is just the thing for sharpening one’s more violent instincts (Jacob’s mid-life crisis is not reported in the Bible, but count on it, it happened). Not that there’s much anyone can do to prepare for the transition: “The most vexing thing in the life of a man who wishes to change is the improbability of change.” Change comes of its own accord; usually in unexpected ways... well, like grace. Walter Mitty might then be transformed into John Wayne in an instance. An unlikely thing, you say? Oh, ye of little faith. Try to remember that this is biblical writing!
The final story of the three is a competent imitation of the two biblical Books of Kings. The insistent, droning, endless telling of events with no clear trajectory is captured eloquently. The characters are merely names which have no substance whatever. Lots of war, and rage, hostile intentions, and complicated family history, very little of which seems reasonable. So once again very biblical.
Movement too, much movement around strange places for no discernible purpose other than the movement itself. This is the Book of Exodus on a global scale, with the state of Montana as the Promised Land after it has been cleared of its native population, and Tristan starring as Moses (Brad Pitt of course in the film version).
Narrative at its worst one might say - pointless, self-indulgent, and without structure. Like a speech by Trump perhaps. A parody of something one hardly thought could be parodied but there’s more talent in the world than one might have thought. Some of it, at least, of questionable literary worth, and not all of that in the Bible.
People, but mostly men, are fairly hapless creatures who engage themselves in situations that they don’t have a clue about - love, marriage and war are favourites. These themes are perennial, epic, even biblical. But it’s all been written about before. Not that many notice the repitition. Here are three stories of classic haplessness and its consequences, written in a suitably hapless manner - with enough machismo, firearms, hunting dogs, and quails, lots of quails, to keep anyone happy over a rainy weekend..
The first story is an update of the Genesis myth about the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden. The principle difference from the original is that Legends of the Fall portrays a gnostic Demi-god not the serpent as the villain. This change allows the disgraced couple to fight back rather than simply submit to their punishments. And fight they do, with the combined cunning of James Bond and Mata Hari. Lots of righteous violence and retribution. I said it was biblical, didn’t I?
Of course this is more than a bit ironic. But is the irony mine or Harrison’s? Either way I think the link to Genesis makes Legends of the Fall at least somewhat interesting as a literary object. A handsome couple are made a good deal less handsome by a god-like international drug-lord and banished from the their idyllic Eden. What the Lord hadn’t counted on was the sexual devotion of the man to the woman - an hormonal mis-calibration on his part perhaps. They were prototypes after all in both cases.
The trick for dealing with a psychopathic god who thinks he holds all the cards, as in he of the Old Testament or his Mexican equivalent, is to be more willing to die than he is. Mere homesickness doesn’t generate such an attitude. In fact one must lack reason altogether lest calculation inhibit action. Abelard’s intelligence is what prevented him from rescuing his Heloise. He simply thought about her too much.
But ultimately, as in Genesis, everyone is disappointed. Even the Lord “lived as a victim, albeit prosperous.” No one comes out alive, do they? What we’re left with are regrets. Didn’t God regret his creation when he sent his flood? And didn’t he then regret the flood? We all tend to get too attached to things.
Then there’s the second tale, somewhat less sad, redemptive even. This one echoes the biblical story of Abraham’s Son Jacob, his adolescent pining, and working, away over years to gain the hand (and other parts) of his beloved Rachel. The accidents of human affection are not often kind. As with Jacob and Rachel, so with Nordstrom and Laura. He sees her, she ignores him. He sees her again, she plots his capture.
Finally the mystery of sex becomes overwhelming and they are blissfully united... until the mystery of its mystery with the same person becomes less mysterious over the years. Revenge is the only reasonable motive to have after years of miserable effort crowned by profound buyer’s regret. But revenge against whom? A victim is, of course, providentially provided, with suitable character flaws to justify his annihilation. But where’s the necessary killer instinct to carry out the task at hand?
Timing is everything. A mid-life crisis is just the thing for sharpening one’s more violent instincts (Jacob’s mid-life crisis is not reported in the Bible, but count on it, it happened). Not that there’s much anyone can do to prepare for the transition: “The most vexing thing in the life of a man who wishes to change is the improbability of change.” Change comes of its own accord; usually in unexpected ways... well, like grace. Walter Mitty might then be transformed into John Wayne in an instance. An unlikely thing, you say? Oh, ye of little faith. Try to remember that this is biblical writing!
The final story of the three is a competent imitation of the two biblical Books of Kings. The insistent, droning, endless telling of events with no clear trajectory is captured eloquently. The characters are merely names which have no substance whatever. Lots of war, and rage, hostile intentions, and complicated family history, very little of which seems reasonable. So once again very biblical.
Movement too, much movement around strange places for no discernible purpose other than the movement itself. This is the Book of Exodus on a global scale, with the state of Montana as the Promised Land after it has been cleared of its native population, and Tristan starring as Moses (Brad Pitt of course in the film version).
Narrative at its worst one might say - pointless, self-indulgent, and without structure. Like a speech by Trump perhaps. A parody of something one hardly thought could be parodied but there’s more talent in the world than one might have thought. Some of it, at least, of questionable literary worth, and not all of that in the Bible.
April 30, 2022
I don't know what led me to read this... it was a pretty random reading choice on my part. I'd never read Harrison before, but I had watched this many a time, please and thank you...
And, that's where the eye candy ends, friends. That's where it ends. Unbenownst to me, this book is actually a collection of three novellas, and none of them (even the titular story) resemble the Hollywood impressions from the 90s that, if you are like me, you may hold dear.
What can I say. Jim Harrison is a decent writer. His stories have a certain energy to them. In particular, the first one of the three and the one I liked best, Revenge, features a propulsive plot, and a great deal of grit. And violence - pretty brutal violence.
But after reading these stories, the main impression I take away is "toxic masculinity". Believe me, I'm a fan of masculinity, and I read and admire many writers whose (now unfashionable) male gaze is intrinsic to their work. Harrison's, though... well, I'd say there's very little nuance there. It's all male ego, pride, point of view. Revenge, for example, is all driven by two men in a tug-of-war over a woman, who is little more than an object and the spark to light the dynamite in this story. (A woman, I should add, whose lips are cut off by her husband, because she had an affair. Oh yes, and then he shoots her up with heroin and puts her in a whore house, where she's abused by more men. Because he loved her so much??)
The second story, The Man Who Gave up his Name, is less violent, but no less male centric. It's the story of a mid life crisis, which should be interesting, but isn't, actually. An emotionally stunted man who can't see past the bridge of his own nose doesn't know what to do with himself after his marriage ends. He wanders aimlessly to a rather meaningless conclusion. He thinks about the clenching of his wife's ass a lot, though.
Same with Legends of the Fall. The crisis revolves around Tristan who just can't get past the death of his brother, and thus wanders the world in a beating-his-chest type of way, and the women in the story are either mentally ill, or die tragically, never taking on much of a personality.
So, while I am glad I read this, because now I have had a taste of Jim Harrison's writing, and experienced the rough and bleak worlds he created, I can't say I'm tempted to read more. As it turns out, this reader needs less bravado and posturing in her male gaze.
And, that's where the eye candy ends, friends. That's where it ends. Unbenownst to me, this book is actually a collection of three novellas, and none of them (even the titular story) resemble the Hollywood impressions from the 90s that, if you are like me, you may hold dear.
What can I say. Jim Harrison is a decent writer. His stories have a certain energy to them. In particular, the first one of the three and the one I liked best, Revenge, features a propulsive plot, and a great deal of grit. And violence - pretty brutal violence.
But after reading these stories, the main impression I take away is "toxic masculinity". Believe me, I'm a fan of masculinity, and I read and admire many writers whose (now unfashionable) male gaze is intrinsic to their work. Harrison's, though... well, I'd say there's very little nuance there. It's all male ego, pride, point of view. Revenge, for example, is all driven by two men in a tug-of-war over a woman, who is little more than an object and the spark to light the dynamite in this story. (A woman, I should add, whose lips are cut off by her husband, because she had an affair. Oh yes, and then he shoots her up with heroin and puts her in a whore house, where she's abused by more men. Because he loved her so much??)
The second story, The Man Who Gave up his Name, is less violent, but no less male centric. It's the story of a mid life crisis, which should be interesting, but isn't, actually. An emotionally stunted man who can't see past the bridge of his own nose doesn't know what to do with himself after his marriage ends. He wanders aimlessly to a rather meaningless conclusion. He thinks about the clenching of his wife's ass a lot, though.
Same with Legends of the Fall. The crisis revolves around Tristan who just can't get past the death of his brother, and thus wanders the world in a beating-his-chest type of way, and the women in the story are either mentally ill, or die tragically, never taking on much of a personality.
So, while I am glad I read this, because now I have had a taste of Jim Harrison's writing, and experienced the rough and bleak worlds he created, I can't say I'm tempted to read more. As it turns out, this reader needs less bravado and posturing in her male gaze.
November 2, 2022
كان الصخرة التي سينكسر عليها كل من احبه لالف قطعه؛هذا هو تريستان:لن يفهموا ابدا انه حاول ان يحميهم من محنة الوقوع في حبه؛ لن يدركوا ان قلبه البري و روحه الوثابة؛ لم تُخلق لحياتنا محدودة المدة و المكان
مجموعة أساطير الخريف السوداوية الاخلاقية ذات الثلاث نوفيلات لجيم هاريسون؛ وفرت لنا فيلمين َمن اشهر افلام التسعينات؛بكاست كامل النجوم و جدل فاق التصور.. صنع الفيلمان مجد بطليهما و قضيا علي مسيرة بطليتهما
:النوفيلات
انتقام-
الرجل الذي تخلي عن اسمه-
أساطير الخريف-
و هي ملحمة برية رومانسية حربية تدوم لعقود في مائة صفحة فقط و لكنها زاخرة باوصاف مدهشة للطبيعة و البشر
نظر حوله مدركًا أنه فُقد؛ ضاع؛ ولكنه*
*لم يمانع لأنه كان يعلم أنه لم يتم العثور عليه مطلقًا."
بدونها لم يكن هناك اي شيء
اما معها؛ فابسط الأشياء كانت تكتسب قيمة ابدية
كوشران بطل نوفيلا انتقام؛ كان مثالاَ للرجل الذي يلقى بنفسه لخضم الحياة بدون حسابات مسبقة
فيجد نفسه واقعاَ في حب ميريا التي تعيش في كنف زعيم المافيا المكسيكية و ليكونن انتقامه اسطورياَ من كليهما
لتصبح احدي هذه القصص المحيرة عن المعني الحقيقي: للخيانة
الرجل الذي تخلي عن اسمه
بدت حياته الخاصة فجأة رسمية بشكل بغيض. من كان يعرف أو ماذا يعرف ومن يحب؟ جالسًا على الجذع تحت وطأة وفاة والده وحتى الموت المتأصل في مظلة الأوراق المحتضرة ذات الألوان الوحشية
هكذا ادرك. نوردستوروم في خريف عمره؛ ان ايامه سرقته؛ حياته؛ انجازاته؛ شعره الرمادي :كأنهم ينتمون لشخص اخر
فهل يتخلى عن كل شيء؟
و اخيرا
تجنبوا هواء فصل الخريف؛*
*فانه يفعل بكم ما يفعله في أوراق الشجر
مجموعة أساطير الخريف السوداوية الاخلاقية ذات الثلاث نوفيلات لجيم هاريسون؛ وفرت لنا فيلمين َمن اشهر افلام التسعينات؛بكاست كامل النجوم و جدل فاق التصور.. صنع الفيلمان مجد بطليهما و قضيا علي مسيرة بطليتهما
:النوفيلات
انتقام-
الرجل الذي تخلي عن اسمه-
أساطير الخريف-
و هي ملحمة برية رومانسية حربية تدوم لعقود في مائة صفحة فقط و لكنها زاخرة باوصاف مدهشة للطبيعة و البشر
نظر حوله مدركًا أنه فُقد؛ ضاع؛ ولكنه*
*لم يمانع لأنه كان يعلم أنه لم يتم العثور عليه مطلقًا."
بدونها لم يكن هناك اي شيء
اما معها؛ فابسط الأشياء كانت تكتسب قيمة ابدية
كوشران بطل نوفيلا انتقام؛ كان مثالاَ للرجل الذي يلقى بنفسه لخضم الحياة بدون حسابات مسبقة
فيجد نفسه واقعاَ في حب ميريا التي تعيش في كنف زعيم المافيا المكسيكية و ليكونن انتقامه اسطورياَ من كليهما
لتصبح احدي هذه القصص المحيرة عن المعني الحقيقي: للخيانة
الرجل الذي تخلي عن اسمه
بدت حياته الخاصة فجأة رسمية بشكل بغيض. من كان يعرف أو ماذا يعرف ومن يحب؟ جالسًا على الجذع تحت وطأة وفاة والده وحتى الموت المتأصل في مظلة الأوراق المحتضرة ذات الألوان الوحشية
هكذا ادرك. نوردستوروم في خريف عمره؛ ان ايامه سرقته؛ حياته؛ انجازاته؛ شعره الرمادي :كأنهم ينتمون لشخص اخر
فهل يتخلى عن كل شيء؟
و اخيرا
تجنبوا هواء فصل الخريف؛*
*فانه يفعل بكم ما يفعله في أوراق الشجر
December 29, 2015
Utterly unlike the movie – but no better. The movie might be better. (The last time I saw it I was high and I was very entertained imagining digressive counter-films about Col. Ludlow’s embittered back story and virginal Samuel’s “poetic” friendships with other Cambridge aesthetes and the homosexual or simply compensatory motivation of his avidity to enlist. And Anthony Hopkins looks badass in a buffalo robe.) For one, the movie has a better structure. Hollywood's usually harmful compression and redaction of literary source material actually improves on Harrison's novella, in which too much happens too fast over too large a space. Also, the movie succeeds – but is that the word? – as classic Hollywood bombast. Every character is morbidly motivated, nursing a secret wound or strangling a sexy inner demon, and posed against pedantically art-directed backdrops – the oaken elegance of northern frontier wealth, the oil-lamp-lit parlors and river rock mantelpieces of the Cattleman's Club. The passionate yet essentially clean-cut Brad Pitt is another cinematic fantasy of White Manhood toughened by Indian tuition and sexually renewed by a little time out of doors and away from Mother. In the novella, by contrast, Harrison seems to try for a spare tale of man against fate, told with lean grace and luminous plainness by a distant and uninvolved narrator – and he fails, bottoms out in preposterous capers and dime novel prose:
Ha ha! "...her impending madness"! Turns out Hollywood is the subtler psychologist. What a shitty writer! It’s a pity Evan S. Connell or Alice Munro didn’t think up the Ludlows. But I won’t lie, Harrison has his lovely bits. The subtle romance of scientific prose was an interesting theme. One night after his boys have left for the trenches Col. Ludlow fills a tumbler “from a demijohn of Canadian whiskey kept under the bed for insomnia” and examines the marginal notes young Tristan left in a copy of his father’s whistle-blowing army opus, Report of a Reconnaissance of the Black Hills of Dakota. Tristan found in the precision of this sober report an invitation to dream, an adventure; found what Elizabeth Bishop found in Darwin – “the beautiful solid case being built up out of his endless heroic observations, almost unconscious or automatic – and then comes a sudden relaxation, a forgetful phrase, and one feels the strangeness of his undertaking.” One Stab, Col. Ludlow’s Cheyenne factotum, has Tristan read him African expeditionary accounts which mention rhinoceros herds charging and tipping British locomotives – and he daydreams that the vanished Plains buffalo did the same to the first arrogant engines of the Northern Pacific.
Susannah led Tristan to the master bedroom to avoid any intrusion by the maids. At first she was cool and demanding, asking that Tristan meet her in Paris by the middle of October. He refused, saying that the time was not yet appropriate. She became hysterical and he offered the following spring as a compromise beyond which she could not go. Then there was a long unbearably painful silence at the end of which he recognized again the signs of her impending madness. He forestalled it by drawing her near to him and assuring her that by the following May he would be ready. She shuddered in his arms and as he gazed over her shoulder Alfred walked into the room…
Ha ha! "...her impending madness"! Turns out Hollywood is the subtler psychologist. What a shitty writer! It’s a pity Evan S. Connell or Alice Munro didn’t think up the Ludlows. But I won’t lie, Harrison has his lovely bits. The subtle romance of scientific prose was an interesting theme. One night after his boys have left for the trenches Col. Ludlow fills a tumbler “from a demijohn of Canadian whiskey kept under the bed for insomnia” and examines the marginal notes young Tristan left in a copy of his father’s whistle-blowing army opus, Report of a Reconnaissance of the Black Hills of Dakota. Tristan found in the precision of this sober report an invitation to dream, an adventure; found what Elizabeth Bishop found in Darwin – “the beautiful solid case being built up out of his endless heroic observations, almost unconscious or automatic – and then comes a sudden relaxation, a forgetful phrase, and one feels the strangeness of his undertaking.” One Stab, Col. Ludlow’s Cheyenne factotum, has Tristan read him African expeditionary accounts which mention rhinoceros herds charging and tipping British locomotives – and he daydreams that the vanished Plains buffalo did the same to the first arrogant engines of the Northern Pacific.
September 17, 2012
My copy is a post-movie paperback, complete with Brad Pitt's young mug looming over a Montana skyline, and gives no clue, even on the jacket copy, that this is actually a collection of three unrelated novellas. I like the form: these feel almost epic in scope, just not in length.
I love Harrison's writing, rather solemn, almost elegiac. His imagery is poetic but unsentimental, which makes sense, since he's also published numerous volumes of poetry. All three stories are told in the third person, and primarily follows one male character and his relationships with others.
"Revenge" takes place in Mexico and the U.S. border states, about a man who falls in love with the wife of a friend, a man with money, authority, and a brutal sense of honor and entitlement. The writing feels old or even timeless. "The Man Who Gave Up His Name" is more contemporary, following a man's adulthood into the 1970s. Nordstrom is pragmatic, or what his wife called "unimaginative," but I found him interesting and increasingly imaginative as his story progresses and he crosses paths with a dangerous man. The third story is "Legends of the Fall." I saw the film many years ago. It's often unfortunate to read a book after seeing the movie, since one, you know what's coming, and two, the characters are already seated in your brain as looking and acting a particular way. But this is just so good, centering on Tristan, the middle son of a wealthy rancher in Montana. Tristan is a complicated and endlessly tormented character. He loves, but he leaves, venturing off to sea, or to California, or to Mexico, heeding a call that seems urgent to him. He becomes a bootlegger during Prohibition, which leads to an event that brings senseless grief to many.
Don't look for happy endings. These stories are intense in terms of what happens: love and frank sex, betrayal and adultery, lots of death, lots of revenge, lots of murder, lots of vindication. Despite that, the stories are very calm in their telling, and unsensationalized.
I'm usually more drawn to female literary authors but I will be looking for more of Harrison's writing.
I love Harrison's writing, rather solemn, almost elegiac. His imagery is poetic but unsentimental, which makes sense, since he's also published numerous volumes of poetry. All three stories are told in the third person, and primarily follows one male character and his relationships with others.
"Revenge" takes place in Mexico and the U.S. border states, about a man who falls in love with the wife of a friend, a man with money, authority, and a brutal sense of honor and entitlement. The writing feels old or even timeless. "The Man Who Gave Up His Name" is more contemporary, following a man's adulthood into the 1970s. Nordstrom is pragmatic, or what his wife called "unimaginative," but I found him interesting and increasingly imaginative as his story progresses and he crosses paths with a dangerous man. The third story is "Legends of the Fall." I saw the film many years ago. It's often unfortunate to read a book after seeing the movie, since one, you know what's coming, and two, the characters are already seated in your brain as looking and acting a particular way. But this is just so good, centering on Tristan, the middle son of a wealthy rancher in Montana. Tristan is a complicated and endlessly tormented character. He loves, but he leaves, venturing off to sea, or to California, or to Mexico, heeding a call that seems urgent to him. He becomes a bootlegger during Prohibition, which leads to an event that brings senseless grief to many.
Don't look for happy endings. These stories are intense in terms of what happens: love and frank sex, betrayal and adultery, lots of death, lots of revenge, lots of murder, lots of vindication. Despite that, the stories are very calm in their telling, and unsensationalized.
I'm usually more drawn to female literary authors but I will be looking for more of Harrison's writing.
January 29, 2023
“He looked around the clearing in recognition that he was lost but didn’t mind because he knew he had never been found.”
― Jim Harrison, Legends of the Fall
There are actually several stories included in here, not just Legends. I did read them all and though I liked Legends I still prefer Revenge which was also a film and which starred Kevin Costner and Madeline Stowe.
To be honest it took me awhile to get into these stories. We are told many things, not shown and what I mean by that is there is much less actual dialogue then I am used to.
The actual Legends of the fall story differs a bit from the movie but the movie still follows it for the most part. Somehow the stories are more grim in the book version and both of these movies are pretty dark so that is saying something.
I think this is a book that can be enjoyed very much but it may take awhile to get used to. It did for me but ultimately I am glad I read this.
― Jim Harrison, Legends of the Fall
There are actually several stories included in here, not just Legends. I did read them all and though I liked Legends I still prefer Revenge which was also a film and which starred Kevin Costner and Madeline Stowe.
To be honest it took me awhile to get into these stories. We are told many things, not shown and what I mean by that is there is much less actual dialogue then I am used to.
The actual Legends of the fall story differs a bit from the movie but the movie still follows it for the most part. Somehow the stories are more grim in the book version and both of these movies are pretty dark so that is saying something.
I think this is a book that can be enjoyed very much but it may take awhile to get used to. It did for me but ultimately I am glad I read this.
July 19, 2014
I've heard positive things about Harrison for years, but much as I wanted to enjoy this trio of novellas I found myself disappointed. While he is capable of turning a beautiful, poetic sentence now and again, Harrison's stories seem obsessed with summarizing instead of actually narrating. He tells you everything everyone is doing and everything they ever have done, ad infinitum. There is no sense of immediacy here, of the present moment unfolding in any significant or meaningful way. He tells you what happened incessantly instead of showing you, which, for me at least, makes it heard to really get invested in what's going on. It also doesn't help that all of the main characters feel like variations on the same stoic, proud, usually well-off guy whose basically has it all. It's too bad because the title story has some real potential and would probably make a killer novel if it was expanded by a few hundred pages, instead the reader is treated to an ornate summary of what in more capable hands (maybe Cormac Mccarthy's?) could be made into compelling literature.
December 23, 2013
These three novellas are certainly cinematic. Which might explain the Legends of the Fall movie, something I've managed to miss to this point. Suffice it to say, there are Mexican warlords, drug smugglers, bootleggers, and the general unhinged. Each of the three stories ends with a climatic scene where the protagonist will murder, be murdered or just shake hands. I don't care. Jim Harrison's my guy.
Revenge: 4/5
Perhaps this can be summarized in one sentence: The morning before Mauro and his daughter had found him by the roadside, excepting the following morning when he was nothing but a dying piece of meat rotting through the day into the evening, he had awakened in an uncommon state of what he thought was love.
The Man Who Gave Up His Name: 4/5
A lot of Harrison's works involve characters who check out: some disappear; some take on new identities; some go mad. The protagonist here was a very successful businessman. A lot happens, but eventually he gives his money away and decides to go south to be a cook. Not to own a restaurant, mind you; just to be a cook in one. A joint, at that.
There were great Harrison moments here. Such as this brief dialogue:
"You're looking up my legs," she said.
"No I wasn't."
"If you're honest you can kiss them."
"I was."
And this little aside:
Read a Knut Hamsun novel to see what Norwegians could do (not much).
And food. Food. Food. Harrison loves to eat; loves to cook. Loves to drink when he eats or cooks. And he makes sure his characters do too. Never more than here. You should, by the way, check out this interview of Jim Harrison by Mario Batali -http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/t... - where they agree to agree that boneless, skinless chicken breasts are the ruin of mankind.
Harrison also likes to give little shout-outs to other authors, other books. Here, he practically grabs you by the lapels and insists that you read A Short History of Decay (or anything else, really) by E.M. Cioran. Which I will.
The Legends of the Fall: 3/5
It wasn't because I've seen the movie, because as I've mentioned above, I haven't. I don't even know which character is played by Brad Pitt. So it wasn't that either. Maybe the story just felt forced to me. Or, impelled by the others, I kind of force-read it.
----- ----- ----- -----
Later Harrison is funnier. I missed that.
Revenge: 4/5
Perhaps this can be summarized in one sentence: The morning before Mauro and his daughter had found him by the roadside, excepting the following morning when he was nothing but a dying piece of meat rotting through the day into the evening, he had awakened in an uncommon state of what he thought was love.
The Man Who Gave Up His Name: 4/5
A lot of Harrison's works involve characters who check out: some disappear; some take on new identities; some go mad. The protagonist here was a very successful businessman. A lot happens, but eventually he gives his money away and decides to go south to be a cook. Not to own a restaurant, mind you; just to be a cook in one. A joint, at that.
There were great Harrison moments here. Such as this brief dialogue:
"You're looking up my legs," she said.
"No I wasn't."
"If you're honest you can kiss them."
"I was."
And this little aside:
Read a Knut Hamsun novel to see what Norwegians could do (not much).
And food. Food. Food. Harrison loves to eat; loves to cook. Loves to drink when he eats or cooks. And he makes sure his characters do too. Never more than here. You should, by the way, check out this interview of Jim Harrison by Mario Batali -http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/t... - where they agree to agree that boneless, skinless chicken breasts are the ruin of mankind.
Harrison also likes to give little shout-outs to other authors, other books. Here, he practically grabs you by the lapels and insists that you read A Short History of Decay (or anything else, really) by E.M. Cioran. Which I will.
The Legends of the Fall: 3/5
It wasn't because I've seen the movie, because as I've mentioned above, I haven't. I don't even know which character is played by Brad Pitt. So it wasn't that either. Maybe the story just felt forced to me. Or, impelled by the others, I kind of force-read it.
----- ----- ----- -----
Later Harrison is funnier. I missed that.
April 20, 2007
The movie was passionate, enthralling, and unforgetable. The book, a 100 page short story tucked between the covers with other equally poorly written short stories, is boring, confusing, and disappointing. How anyone ever wrote a screenplay as good as the movie from this short story is beyond me. That person deserves a medal of some sort.
January 20, 2021
Revenge- *** Kind of a typical macho revenge tale. Didn't particularly care for it, but I did enjoy the Diller character and I thought the ending was quite powerful. Good but not great.
The Man Who Gave Up His Name-**** This is an excellent tale of a typical midlife crisis. Nordstrom's confused indifference is an interesting viewpoint for such a circumstance. This was strong four to five star territory until the ending, when an unnecessary violent conflict pops up. Detracts from the internal power of the story. Almost like Harrison can't help but have some violence in his stories.
Legends of the Fall-**** One of the few instances where the film might be better than the book. The movie is an all time favorite of mine, so perhaps my expectations were too high. Nonetheless, Harrison's prose is perfect for this kind of story, and although the screenplay might make for a better story, it is still an impressive work.
Overall this sits in the very good/maybe excellent range. Given Harrison's obvious talent, three stars just seems too low. And as I mentioned already, my high expectations might be negatively impacting my rating. We'll call it a low four. Deserving of it's high reputation.
The Man Who Gave Up His Name-**** This is an excellent tale of a typical midlife crisis. Nordstrom's confused indifference is an interesting viewpoint for such a circumstance. This was strong four to five star territory until the ending, when an unnecessary violent conflict pops up. Detracts from the internal power of the story. Almost like Harrison can't help but have some violence in his stories.
Legends of the Fall-**** One of the few instances where the film might be better than the book. The movie is an all time favorite of mine, so perhaps my expectations were too high. Nonetheless, Harrison's prose is perfect for this kind of story, and although the screenplay might make for a better story, it is still an impressive work.
Overall this sits in the very good/maybe excellent range. Given Harrison's obvious talent, three stars just seems too low. And as I mentioned already, my high expectations might be negatively impacting my rating. We'll call it a low four. Deserving of it's high reputation.
March 24, 2007
The book, thankfully, is way better than the movie. Harrison's underrated as a stylist. While he does sort of fit the Michigan writer cliche of an epicurean, hard-drinking Northman, he also writes cogently on Rilke, Cioran, obscure Russian poets like Yesenin, and is equally adept at poetry, formal prose, and, say, restaurant reviews. How many writers can tell you how to make a great stock out of leftover bits of wild game, advise you on a good recording of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, and write really entertaining novels about half-baked, dam-exploding miscreants who spend half their time fishing drunk and the rest chasing down pussy? And yet no one believes me.
April 4, 2024
Legends of the Fall is a trilogy of novellas — Revenge, The Man Who Gave Up His Name, and Legends of the Fall.
Revenge- A man falls in love with the wife of a crime boss. This story reads like Mickey Spillane meets Cormac McCarthy.
The Man Who Gave Up His Name is the journey of a successful businessman who has an unsuccessful existence.
Legends of the Fall is the title novella and the money shot of the collection. The story revolves around three brothers and the forces that shape them.
Revenge- A man falls in love with the wife of a crime boss. This story reads like Mickey Spillane meets Cormac McCarthy.
The Man Who Gave Up His Name is the journey of a successful businessman who has an unsuccessful existence.
Legends of the Fall is the title novella and the money shot of the collection. The story revolves around three brothers and the forces that shape them.
July 13, 2016
This is a collection of 3 short stories/novellas. Legends of the Fall is by far a 5 star read. The other two are 3.5-4 star reads. Legends of the Fall is what drew me to this read. If you have seen the movie, all the players are there, but the plot is arranged a little differently. 5 stars to the movie and 5 stars to the short story knowing each are a little different from each other.
April 4, 2020
مهارة الكاتب الأمريكي "هاريسون" في خلط العنف والشعر داخل نصّه ضمن كيمياء فريدة تجعلنا نرغب في قراءة ـ أو إعادة قراءة ـ جميع أعماله، حيث يتجنّب البشر مواجهة اللغز المؤسِف الذي يتعلق بغياب نظامٍ عادل في توزيع المكافآت والعقوبات على هذه الأرض، خصوصاً في الحالات الأكثر مأساوية، كمصير أطفال قبيلة "نيز بيرسي" (الهندية) الذين كانوا ينامون في خِيَمهم .."حين مزّقتهم نيران فرقة الخيّالة الأميركية. لا شيء أكثر دناءة من لقاء طفلٍ برصاصة بندقية. ثم يا للهوّة في فهم ما حدث، فالصحف آنذاك تغنّت بالانتصار الكبير لجيشنا. نودّ أن نصدّق بأن كل نجوم الكون تتجمّد رعباً وقرفاً أمام مثل هذه الوحشية، بأن كوكبة "أوريون" تتفكك وكوكبة "صليب الجنوب" تنهار. وهو ما لا يحصل طبعاً أبداً. الثابت يبقى على حاله، وكل منّا يصطدم في حلقته الخاصة بهذا اللغز إلى ما لا نهاية"
القصص الثلاث الطويلة التي تتألف منها هذه المجموعة تتحلى بتلك الصلابة الشفّافة والقاطعة لبلّورةٍ مقتلعة من عمق النفس البشرية، وبالتالي، ثمة قاسمان مشتركان في هذه السرديات: الأول هو شعورنا طوال فترة قراءتها بأن يد عملاقٍ هي تلك التي كتبتها، والآخر هو العنف الذي يحتل موقعاً مركزياً في كل منها ويشكّل خيطاً موجّهاً لأحداثها.. عنف رجلٍ مجروح في جسده وقلبه وكبريائه، إثر تعرّضه للخيانة على يد صديق أو زوجة أو الحياة نفسها، ولا يرى خلاصاً له إلا بالانتقام.
انتقام
و"انتقام" هو عنوان القصة الأولى التي نشاهد في بدايتها كوشران، بطلها، منازعاً في الصحراء المكسيكية قبل أن ينقذه قروي وابنته من الذئاب والطيور الكاسرة التي كانت على وشك التهامه.
ومن مراجعته شريط حياته أثناء مرحلة شفائه، يتبيّن لنا أنه طّيار حربي سابق استقرّ بعد طلاقه في مدينة توكسون في ولاية تكساس الأمريكية، حيث كان يمضي وقته في ممارسة رياضة كرة المضرب مع رجال أثرياء، ومن بينهم الملياردير تيبي الذي ينتمي إلى المافيا المكسيكية ويعيش محاطاً بحرّاسه القتلة وبرفقة شابة فاتنة تدعى ميريا، وعلى رغم الصداقة التي تجمعه بهذا الأخير، لن يلبث كوشران أن يقع في حبّ ميريا. وحين تبادله هذه الشابة مشاعره ويكتشف تيبي لقاءاتهما السرّية، يقرر الانتقام منهما بطريقة وحشية.
الرجل الذي تخلّى عن اسمه
وفي القصة الثانية، "الرجل الذي تخلّى عن اسمه"، نتعرّف إلى طالب جامعي خجول يدعى نوردستروم ويعشق في السرّ طالبة شقراء لا تهتم لوجوده.
لكن تشاء الظروف يوماً أن يلتقيان ويعيشان علاقة، فتتغيّر نظرة هذه الشابة إليه وتقبل الزواج منه وتنجب له ابنةً، وبعد سنواتٍ طويلة من الحياة الزوجية السعيدة يجمع نوردستروم خلالها ثروة كبيرة، تطلب زوجته الطلاق منه، فتنقلب حياته رأساً على عقب ويبدأ مرحلة تأمّل في مسيرته يستنتج خلالها أن حياته لم تكن "سوى تراكم أفعال يومية متكرِّرة"، وأن نجاحه المهني مجرّد كذبة، قبل أن يبرهن لنا، في سياق محاولته إنقاذ نفسه، أن مهما كانت طبيعة أخطائنا، ثمة وقتاً لتصحيحها، لأن "لعبة الحياة لا تنتهي إلا حين توافينا المنيّة".
أساطير خريفية
القصة الثالثة، "أساطير خريفية"، نرى في بدايتها الأخوة الثلاثة "لولدو" يغادرون مزرعة والدهم متوجّهين إلى كندا للانضمام إلى الجيش الإنكليزي ومحاربة الألمان إثر اندلاع الحرب العالمية الأولى.
وبخلاف ألفرد، الأخ الأكبر، الرصين والخجول، وصامويل، الأخ الأصغر، الحالم الهشّ والمثقف الوحيد في العائلة المولع بتأمل ودراسة الطبيعة، يبدو "تريستان"، بطل القصة، متمرّداً منذ صغره ويعاني من صعوبة في التعبير عن مشاعره، على رغم جرأته وطابعه المغامر.
وحين يصل الأخوة الثلاثة إلى فرنسا، ينخرط ألفرد وتريستان مباشرةً في المعارك، بينما يحتل صامويل منصباً إدارياً داخل الجيش، لكن حين يُكلَّف بمهمة استطلاعية ويُقتَل في كمين، يجنّ تريستان وينطلق في تنفيذ عمليات عسكرية يقتل خلالها ألمان كثر انتقاماً لأخيه، قبل أن تعتبره قيادته مجنوناً وترحّله إلى أميركا حيث يتزوّج بهدفٍ واحد: إنجاب طفل يحلّ مكان صامويل.
ولأن ألمه من فقدان أخيه لن يخفّ، يحاول خنقه برحلات بحرية طويلة لا يواجه خلالها احتدام العناصر في عرض البحر فحسب، بل أيضاً كل أنواع المخاطر، قبل أن يعود إلى مزرعة والده بعد سنوات ويتمكن من تأسيس حياةٍ أخرى. لكن هل ستكون هذه الحياة أفضل من حياته السابقة؟.
تأملات وجودية
قيمة هذه المجموعة ـ كما يقول المترجم ماتيوسون، لا تقتصر على أسلوبها الفريد وحيوية شخصياتها، بل في التأملات الوجودية الغزيرة المسيَّرة في قصصها وتعكس رؤية صاحبها العميقة والبصيرة للحياة وإنسانيته النادرة.
وإذ لا مجال هنا لاستحضار نماذج مخت��فة عن هذه التأملات، نكتفي بواحد تتجلى فيه أيضاً
القصص الثلاث الطويلة التي تتألف منها هذه المجموعة تتحلى بتلك الصلابة الشفّافة والقاطعة لبلّورةٍ مقتلعة من عمق النفس البشرية، وبالتالي، ثمة قاسمان مشتركان في هذه السرديات: الأول هو شعورنا طوال فترة قراءتها بأن يد عملاقٍ هي تلك التي كتبتها، والآخر هو العنف الذي يحتل موقعاً مركزياً في كل منها ويشكّل خيطاً موجّهاً لأحداثها.. عنف رجلٍ مجروح في جسده وقلبه وكبريائه، إثر تعرّضه للخيانة على يد صديق أو زوجة أو الحياة نفسها، ولا يرى خلاصاً له إلا بالانتقام.
انتقام
و"انتقام" هو عنوان القصة الأولى التي نشاهد في بدايتها كوشران، بطلها، منازعاً في الصحراء المكسيكية قبل أن ينقذه قروي وابنته من الذئاب والطيور الكاسرة التي كانت على وشك التهامه.
ومن مراجعته شريط حياته أثناء مرحلة شفائه، يتبيّن لنا أنه طّيار حربي سابق استقرّ بعد طلاقه في مدينة توكسون في ولاية تكساس الأمريكية، حيث كان يمضي وقته في ممارسة رياضة كرة المضرب مع رجال أثرياء، ومن بينهم الملياردير تيبي الذي ينتمي إلى المافيا المكسيكية ويعيش محاطاً بحرّاسه القتلة وبرفقة شابة فاتنة تدعى ميريا، وعلى رغم الصداقة التي تجمعه بهذا الأخير، لن يلبث كوشران أن يقع في حبّ ميريا. وحين تبادله هذه الشابة مشاعره ويكتشف تيبي لقاءاتهما السرّية، يقرر الانتقام منهما بطريقة وحشية.
الرجل الذي تخلّى عن اسمه
وفي القصة الثانية، "الرجل الذي تخلّى عن اسمه"، نتعرّف إلى طالب جامعي خجول يدعى نوردستروم ويعشق في السرّ طالبة شقراء لا تهتم لوجوده.
لكن تشاء الظروف يوماً أن يلتقيان ويعيشان علاقة، فتتغيّر نظرة هذه الشابة إليه وتقبل الزواج منه وتنجب له ابنةً، وبعد سنواتٍ طويلة من الحياة الزوجية السعيدة يجمع نوردستروم خلالها ثروة كبيرة، تطلب زوجته الطلاق منه، فتنقلب حياته رأساً على عقب ويبدأ مرحلة تأمّل في مسيرته يستنتج خلالها أن حياته لم تكن "سوى تراكم أفعال يومية متكرِّرة"، وأن نجاحه المهني مجرّد كذبة، قبل أن يبرهن لنا، في سياق محاولته إنقاذ نفسه، أن مهما كانت طبيعة أخطائنا، ثمة وقتاً لتصحيحها، لأن "لعبة الحياة لا تنتهي إلا حين توافينا المنيّة".
أساطير خريفية
القصة الثالثة، "أساطير خريفية"، نرى في بدايتها الأخوة الثلاثة "لولدو" يغادرون مزرعة والدهم متوجّهين إلى كندا للانضمام إلى الجيش الإنكليزي ومحاربة الألمان إثر اندلاع الحرب العالمية الأولى.
وبخلاف ألفرد، الأخ الأكبر، الرصين والخجول، وصامويل، الأخ الأصغر، الحالم الهشّ والمثقف الوحيد في العائلة المولع بتأمل ودراسة الطبيعة، يبدو "تريستان"، بطل القصة، متمرّداً منذ صغره ويعاني من صعوبة في التعبير عن مشاعره، على رغم جرأته وطابعه المغامر.
وحين يصل الأخوة الثلاثة إلى فرنسا، ينخرط ألفرد وتريستان مباشرةً في المعارك، بينما يحتل صامويل منصباً إدارياً داخل الجيش، لكن حين يُكلَّف بمهمة استطلاعية ويُقتَل في كمين، يجنّ تريستان وينطلق في تنفيذ عمليات عسكرية يقتل خلالها ألمان كثر انتقاماً لأخيه، قبل أن تعتبره قيادته مجنوناً وترحّله إلى أميركا حيث يتزوّج بهدفٍ واحد: إنجاب طفل يحلّ مكان صامويل.
ولأن ألمه من فقدان أخيه لن يخفّ، يحاول خنقه برحلات بحرية طويلة لا يواجه خلالها احتدام العناصر في عرض البحر فحسب، بل أيضاً كل أنواع المخاطر، قبل أن يعود إلى مزرعة والده بعد سنوات ويتمكن من تأسيس حياةٍ أخرى. لكن هل ستكون هذه الحياة أفضل من حياته السابقة؟.
تأملات وجودية
قيمة هذه المجموعة ـ كما يقول المترجم ماتيوسون، لا تقتصر على أسلوبها الفريد وحيوية شخصياتها، بل في التأملات الوجودية الغزيرة المسيَّرة في قصصها وتعكس رؤية صاحبها العميقة والبصيرة للحياة وإنسانيته النادرة.
وإذ لا مجال هنا لاستحضار نماذج مخت��فة عن هذه التأملات، نكتفي بواحد تتجلى فيه أيضاً
March 23, 2021
This book consists of three novellas: 1) Revenge, 2) The Man Who Gave Up His Name, and 3) Legends of the Fall. In Revenge, a man has an affair with the wife of a drug lord and consequences are paid by all. In The Man Who Gave Up His Name, a business tycoon feels a growing dissatisfaction and decides to change his life. In Legends of the Fall, three sons of a Montana rancher travel to Canada to join the armed forces in the Great War. Multiple tragedies befall the family.
Each novella contains violent dramatic action. The tone is dark. Revenge is a shared theme. Harrison somehow manages to keep these three tragic stories from becoming too depressing. His writing has a macho edge. The endings of the first two novellas are not as effective as the third, which was my personal favorite.
Each novella contains violent dramatic action. The tone is dark. Revenge is a shared theme. Harrison somehow manages to keep these three tragic stories from becoming too depressing. His writing has a macho edge. The endings of the first two novellas are not as effective as the third, which was my personal favorite.
August 6, 2016
This book had three short stories in it. The title story was the third in the collection and was really quite different from the movie. It wasn't a particularly compelling story unless you want to look at it as only being about Tristan's character. And madness. There were several mad people in that one.
The second story, The Man who Gave Up His Name, was my least favorite as the character was quite nauseating. And I never understood the significance of the title.
The first story was the gem of this collection. Revenge was the story that was made into a film of the same name starring Kevin Costner and Madeline Stowe. I've seen that movie many times but I can't watch it often because it's so brutal and tragic. There was a part of me that was not happy to be blindsided by a story that I deliberately have to brace myself for, but there was a part of me that really had to listen. I do love it for some reason. It was funny, though, because I've seen the movie so many times that I was visualizing it as I was listening and it startled me every single time "Cochran" spoke and it wasn't Kevin Costner's voice! In this particular case I liked the movie better.
All three of the stories read more as life histories and are quite light on dialogue.
The second story, The Man who Gave Up His Name, was my least favorite as the character was quite nauseating. And I never understood the significance of the title.
The first story was the gem of this collection. Revenge was the story that was made into a film of the same name starring Kevin Costner and Madeline Stowe. I've seen that movie many times but I can't watch it often because it's so brutal and tragic. There was a part of me that was not happy to be blindsided by a story that I deliberately have to brace myself for, but there was a part of me that really had to listen. I do love it for some reason. It was funny, though, because I've seen the movie so many times that I was visualizing it as I was listening and it startled me every single time "Cochran" spoke and it wasn't Kevin Costner's voice! In this particular case I liked the movie better.
All three of the stories read more as life histories and are quite light on dialogue.
March 2, 2017
Three novellas from one of the best poets of our time. I liked the first, skipped the second, loved Legends of the Fall, and was a bit perturbed by the simplistic portrayals of women (which were not, I think, intentional or self-conscious on Harrison's part).
"Revenge" reads like an early Hemingway. Starkly drawn, not quite nihilistic story about a man who falls in love with a cartel head's wife, is beat to within an inch of his life, then launches a dual mission of revenge/recovery of his lover. If you've read any of Harrison's poetry, you know that he has the awesome talent of being able to describe something in a way you've never heard before in your life, but which makes immediate visceral sense. I enjoyed this novella for that talent, even though the storyline is something I've read before. Granted, the ending was unique, very human, and well worth the read.
"The Man Who Gave Up His Name" I skipped this one after 30 pages. Because white men have historically dominated literature, the specific experience of an upper-middle class white man in midlife crisis is a story I can no longer read, simply because I've read too many. It's a valid, illuminating human experience, but this novella was short on plot and long on rumination.
"Legends of the Fall" My favorite. Epic, epic story about three brothers, their family ranch in Montana, their experience together at war and in love, and the fallout forever after. Tristan the middle brother cuts a tragic figure, and it is his interior (his wildness, guilt, lack of ability to function in a so-called civilized society) that the book plumbs most deeply. Harrison can read and explain a soul as if it were a street sign--his poignance amazes me, and for a poet who wrote prose as a secondary venture, the plot was brilliant. Two complaints/warnings: I read Harrison saying that a poet should write prose essentially for exercise. In other words, poetry was Harrison's main project. At the end of this novella, it shows. Written entirely in stilted past tense, then-this-then-this-then-this sentences, it seemed to me that Harrison was forcing himself to finish telling the story. He'd lost interest in writing as a novelist, so the ending chapters are mostly laundry lists of events.
Last complaint: Harrison seemed to have a profound lack of understanding of women. I've seen this in both his poetry and his prose, in which women are foils or devices but rarely humans. His female characters tend toward one of three types: 1) the ubiquitous whore, the tart--she is mentioned in passing as the writer's tool that she is. 2) the impotence-inducing educated woman--venal, sharp-tongued, usually went to Wellesley or Radcliffe, a cold fish, often cuckolds her husband. This character, always a wife, appears in two of three novellas and throughout poems. 3) the sex goddess--perfect, worship-worthy, reticent, and mysterious. Also appears in two of three novellas. Although this character is interesting and unique, you never see her interior.
In the film Legends of the Fall, the filmmakers recognized a tragic figure in Susannah, whose lot as a barren, jilted, manic depressive woman, was just as sympathetic as Tristan's. You can see Harrison's pity of Susannah in the novella, but that pity comes from a faraway alien place. Harrison's men are often mildly confused by and unconcerned with women as people with their own struggles and feelings. That's fine for particular characters, but imho it weakens Writing, whose project is a portrayal of the human condition. I don't care what kind of character you employ, great writing has no room for vaguely conceived characters--even secondary characters should come alive. If a writer kind of forgets that women are people, he's at a huge disadvantage.
"Revenge" reads like an early Hemingway. Starkly drawn, not quite nihilistic story about a man who falls in love with a cartel head's wife, is beat to within an inch of his life, then launches a dual mission of revenge/recovery of his lover. If you've read any of Harrison's poetry, you know that he has the awesome talent of being able to describe something in a way you've never heard before in your life, but which makes immediate visceral sense. I enjoyed this novella for that talent, even though the storyline is something I've read before. Granted, the ending was unique, very human, and well worth the read.
"The Man Who Gave Up His Name" I skipped this one after 30 pages. Because white men have historically dominated literature, the specific experience of an upper-middle class white man in midlife crisis is a story I can no longer read, simply because I've read too many. It's a valid, illuminating human experience, but this novella was short on plot and long on rumination.
"Legends of the Fall" My favorite. Epic, epic story about three brothers, their family ranch in Montana, their experience together at war and in love, and the fallout forever after. Tristan the middle brother cuts a tragic figure, and it is his interior (his wildness, guilt, lack of ability to function in a so-called civilized society) that the book plumbs most deeply. Harrison can read and explain a soul as if it were a street sign--his poignance amazes me, and for a poet who wrote prose as a secondary venture, the plot was brilliant. Two complaints/warnings: I read Harrison saying that a poet should write prose essentially for exercise. In other words, poetry was Harrison's main project. At the end of this novella, it shows. Written entirely in stilted past tense, then-this-then-this-then-this sentences, it seemed to me that Harrison was forcing himself to finish telling the story. He'd lost interest in writing as a novelist, so the ending chapters are mostly laundry lists of events.
Last complaint: Harrison seemed to have a profound lack of understanding of women. I've seen this in both his poetry and his prose, in which women are foils or devices but rarely humans. His female characters tend toward one of three types: 1) the ubiquitous whore, the tart--she is mentioned in passing as the writer's tool that she is. 2) the impotence-inducing educated woman--venal, sharp-tongued, usually went to Wellesley or Radcliffe, a cold fish, often cuckolds her husband. This character, always a wife, appears in two of three novellas and throughout poems. 3) the sex goddess--perfect, worship-worthy, reticent, and mysterious. Also appears in two of three novellas. Although this character is interesting and unique, you never see her interior.
In the film Legends of the Fall, the filmmakers recognized a tragic figure in Susannah, whose lot as a barren, jilted, manic depressive woman, was just as sympathetic as Tristan's. You can see Harrison's pity of Susannah in the novella, but that pity comes from a faraway alien place. Harrison's men are often mildly confused by and unconcerned with women as people with their own struggles and feelings. That's fine for particular characters, but imho it weakens Writing, whose project is a portrayal of the human condition. I don't care what kind of character you employ, great writing has no room for vaguely conceived characters--even secondary characters should come alive. If a writer kind of forgets that women are people, he's at a huge disadvantage.
March 6, 2022
Having seen and enjoyed the movie many years ago, I figured this would be a good read since it had so many elements that appealed to me: the American west, Native American culture and history, war, family, tragedy, personal and interpersonal conflicts, love triangles, travel, adventure, etc. After buying the book I realized that Legends of the Fall is just one of three in this collection of novellas. For now, I only read the title story. I will look forward to reading the other two later.
The writing was a little difficult to get used to. Way too often I had to go back and parse a sentence or two in order to understand what was being said. Also, way too often there were sentences that obviously were intended to be very deep and significant, but just left me befuddled. (Whoosh). Other than these mild complaints I really enjoyed this book. The best thing about it is that it is short -- just the right length for the story it is trying to tell and the message it is trying to convey.
The writing was a little difficult to get used to. Way too often I had to go back and parse a sentence or two in order to understand what was being said. Also, way too often there were sentences that obviously were intended to be very deep and significant, but just left me befuddled. (Whoosh). Other than these mild complaints I really enjoyed this book. The best thing about it is that it is short -- just the right length for the story it is trying to tell and the message it is trying to convey.
November 6, 2018
In just 87 pages Jim Harrison tells a story of two generations of the Montana Ludlow family spanning 50 years.
It’s starting point is three young brothers riding from Choteau, Montana to Calgary to enlist in 1914. Subsequently there are tragedies, vendetta and insanity, enough for a novel 10 times its size, yet this works because the events which may seem contrived in a longer version are incredibly, more plausible in condensed form.
There are two other novellas included with the book, both readable, but neither as powerful. ‘Revenge’ is what it says on the tin. It’s the story of a retired fighter pilot and would-be tennis player, Cochran, who is savagely beaten up due to his liaison with the wife of a Mexican drug lord who seeks retribution.
‘The Man Who Game Up His Name’ is the story of a middle aged man, happily married and in a good job, who decides to change his life. It’s as violent and colourful as the other two stories as would be expected from Harrison.
It’s starting point is three young brothers riding from Choteau, Montana to Calgary to enlist in 1914. Subsequently there are tragedies, vendetta and insanity, enough for a novel 10 times its size, yet this works because the events which may seem contrived in a longer version are incredibly, more plausible in condensed form.
There are two other novellas included with the book, both readable, but neither as powerful. ‘Revenge’ is what it says on the tin. It’s the story of a retired fighter pilot and would-be tennis player, Cochran, who is savagely beaten up due to his liaison with the wife of a Mexican drug lord who seeks retribution.
‘The Man Who Game Up His Name’ is the story of a middle aged man, happily married and in a good job, who decides to change his life. It’s as violent and colourful as the other two stories as would be expected from Harrison.
February 6, 2017
Love His Writing style
Harrison has such a sharp, incisive, minimal style. He uses metaphor as well as anyone I've read. And, while he has a dark view of humanity it rings true in many ways. Loved this book.
Harrison has such a sharp, incisive, minimal style. He uses metaphor as well as anyone I've read. And, while he has a dark view of humanity it rings true in many ways. Loved this book.
May 21, 2023
I did not read the description and had no idea I was about to read three short stories. I was confused for half of the first story: Revenge, wondering how in the heck it connected to the Ludlows hahaha.
Revenge: 2.5-3 Stars
I can't tell how much of my feelings are about waiting for the Ludlows to come in and being confused about the Mexico/Texas setting waiting for Tristan to come in
The Man Who Gave Up His Name: 3-3.5 Stars
This story was all over the place. Parts were spectacularly done, and others felt like a hot literary mess.
Legends of the Fall: 3.5-4 Stars
There were a few new details, which I devoured. However, I think it must just be Harrison's writing style to bounce around all over the place. The movie trumps the book with this one.
Overall I give the collection 3-3.5 stars
Revenge: 2.5-3 Stars
I can't tell how much of my feelings are about waiting for the Ludlows to come in and being confused about the Mexico/Texas setting waiting for Tristan to come in
The Man Who Gave Up His Name: 3-3.5 Stars
This story was all over the place. Parts were spectacularly done, and others felt like a hot literary mess.
Legends of the Fall: 3.5-4 Stars
There were a few new details, which I devoured. However, I think it must just be Harrison's writing style to bounce around all over the place. The movie trumps the book with this one.
Overall I give the collection 3-3.5 stars
October 20, 2007
I decided to read this after Kate and Conrad had a bit of a disagreement over Harrison a few weeks back. I realized I'd never read anything by him, so I picked up this collection of three novellas (unfortunately graced with Brad Pitt and the rest of the movie cast).
At first I disliked it, but then I realized that was because I had expected something else -- I was expecting something more along the lines of McCarthy, and Harrison lacks all the southern gothic Faulknerian pretensions that I love in McCarthy's novels. Harrison is sparse and stripped down, boiled to a bare-bones simplicity that is even more stoic and reserved than Hemingway or Carver. It almost has the cadence of an oral story, and once I fell into the rhythm of this writing I found myself enjoying it, almost lulled into the easy, reserved tone of the tale. This simple, reserved style is in dramatic opposition to the violent, tragic, operatic tale of love, betrayal, and death (both accidental and homicidal) that unfolds over 80 short pages. Characters kill or are killed with the same tone and detail in which a meal is served.
That said, I don't think I'll bother reading the other two novellas. The tension between the reserve and the story are the only thing that make the melodramatic tragedy bearable, and Harrison seems to have tried to fit every tragic stereotype and cliche into this short story as possible: the tragic death of the beloved, poetic youngest son; the wild, untamable adventurer who finally finds love only to loose it in a tragic accident; the noble-savage Indian, wise but silent and suspicious of the White man and his ways. Palatable, even enjoyable for a novella, but I don't think I need another right away.
At first I disliked it, but then I realized that was because I had expected something else -- I was expecting something more along the lines of McCarthy, and Harrison lacks all the southern gothic Faulknerian pretensions that I love in McCarthy's novels. Harrison is sparse and stripped down, boiled to a bare-bones simplicity that is even more stoic and reserved than Hemingway or Carver. It almost has the cadence of an oral story, and once I fell into the rhythm of this writing I found myself enjoying it, almost lulled into the easy, reserved tone of the tale. This simple, reserved style is in dramatic opposition to the violent, tragic, operatic tale of love, betrayal, and death (both accidental and homicidal) that unfolds over 80 short pages. Characters kill or are killed with the same tone and detail in which a meal is served.
That said, I don't think I'll bother reading the other two novellas. The tension between the reserve and the story are the only thing that make the melodramatic tragedy bearable, and Harrison seems to have tried to fit every tragic stereotype and cliche into this short story as possible: the tragic death of the beloved, poetic youngest son; the wild, untamable adventurer who finally finds love only to loose it in a tragic accident; the noble-savage Indian, wise but silent and suspicious of the White man and his ways. Palatable, even enjoyable for a novella, but I don't think I need another right away.
July 22, 2012
More Montana fiction, which is quickly becoming my favorite little sub-genre. I want to read it all.
I love the movie starring Brad Pitt based on the first novella in this book. I've thought about why I love that movie. I think it's the idea that a man can win a woman's heart without talking to her, instead simply going out to the pasture and breaking a wild horse while she's watching, letting the horse brutalize you a bit in the process. Of course it doesn't hurt to look like Brad Pitt. I also like the idea of masculinity in the movie, the way Anthony Hopkins character, after the stroke, kind of devolves into a grunting, elephant-gun-wielding, buffalo-skin-wearing, old west caveman.
One look at Jim Harrison's author photo, of course, and you can see where Hopkins drew the inspiration for his character from.
I enjoyed this book, not only to see those ideas from the film in their purest form, but also for Harrison's direct writing style, and for the way violence is handled. Harrison has a way of not shrinking from the violence in a story, but not glorifying it either, kind of treating it as part of the landscape.
All in all, a great introduction to Harrison's work, and I can't wait to read more.
I love the movie starring Brad Pitt based on the first novella in this book. I've thought about why I love that movie. I think it's the idea that a man can win a woman's heart without talking to her, instead simply going out to the pasture and breaking a wild horse while she's watching, letting the horse brutalize you a bit in the process. Of course it doesn't hurt to look like Brad Pitt. I also like the idea of masculinity in the movie, the way Anthony Hopkins character, after the stroke, kind of devolves into a grunting, elephant-gun-wielding, buffalo-skin-wearing, old west caveman.
One look at Jim Harrison's author photo, of course, and you can see where Hopkins drew the inspiration for his character from.
I enjoyed this book, not only to see those ideas from the film in their purest form, but also for Harrison's direct writing style, and for the way violence is handled. Harrison has a way of not shrinking from the violence in a story, but not glorifying it either, kind of treating it as part of the landscape.
All in all, a great introduction to Harrison's work, and I can't wait to read more.
February 28, 2011
Certain stories stay with you long after you've read the book. LENGENDS OF THE FALL is a perfect example. (And not because my wife has a crush on Brad Pitt, I'm giving all the credit to Jim Harrison.)
I read this book almost five years ago and I can still recall almost every moment of the story. The feelings of the vast wilderness, both geographically and spiritually, that the characters have to roam about makes me suffer both claustrophobia and agoraphobia simultaneously.
A plot synopsis is pointless for this story (I think most of you know what it's about), but I do want to emphasize that this story is one of the best (at least in my personal top ten) family epics of all time. Regardless if you grew up as an only child or if you were one of many, this story will resonate with you. You will cheer when the family triumphs; and you will feel sorrow when the family slowly disintegrates.
The movie was good, but the book was better.
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
I read this book almost five years ago and I can still recall almost every moment of the story. The feelings of the vast wilderness, both geographically and spiritually, that the characters have to roam about makes me suffer both claustrophobia and agoraphobia simultaneously.
A plot synopsis is pointless for this story (I think most of you know what it's about), but I do want to emphasize that this story is one of the best (at least in my personal top ten) family epics of all time. Regardless if you grew up as an only child or if you were one of many, this story will resonate with you. You will cheer when the family triumphs; and you will feel sorrow when the family slowly disintegrates.
The movie was good, but the book was better.
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
May 16, 2015
Легенди за страстта, легенди за мъжете, които взимат това, което пожелаят: http://knigolandia.info/book-review/l...
Три много мъжки творби са събрани зад тая уестърн-корица. Вероятно повечето хора ще се присетят за филма, аз лично не съм го гледал и четох с чист ум – и мисля, че “Легенди за страстта” е силна, но следващата повест – “Мъст”, е дваж по-силна според мен. Третата – “Човекът, който се отказа от своето име” – ми допадна пък с вглъбеността си, с пространния вътрешен монолог, който само голям писател може да изгражда, без да досади, но Джим Харисън го прави с лекота. Затова и цялостно съм силно впечатлен от сборника, като реално единственото ми недоволство е от формата, не ми е удобен този и това си е, години наред това ме дразни и в българските издания на Тери Пратчет например.
Издателство" Пергамент Прес"
http://knigolandia.info/book-review/l...
Три много мъжки творби са събрани зад тая уестърн-корица. Вероятно повечето хора ще се присетят за филма, аз лично не съм го гледал и четох с чист ум – и мисля, че “Легенди за страстта” е силна, но следващата повест – “Мъст”, е дваж по-силна според мен. Третата – “Човекът, който се отказа от своето име” – ми допадна пък с вглъбеността си, с пространния вътрешен монолог, който само голям писател може да изгражда, без да досади, но Джим Харисън го прави с лекота. Затова и цялостно съм силно впечатлен от сборника, като реално единственото ми недоволство е от формата, не ми е удобен този и това си е, години наред това ме дразни и в българските издания на Тери Пратчет например.
Издателство" Пергамент Прес"
http://knigolandia.info/book-review/l...
November 20, 2021
What's to say at this point? Read the novella, see the film, recognize the *ghastly* gender politics in the story were reflective of the time it's set and were more than likely being quietly interrogated in the novella.
I'd prefer to see it in more, not less, charitable terms.
I'd prefer to see it in more, not less, charitable terms.
November 16, 2017
Like Hemingway, only worse...
My interest in Jim Harrison was piqued when I read about him in an NPR article immediately following his death. Now I wish I had never read that article because boy was this a waste of time. Allow me to summarize these three novellas as best as I can:
“Revenge”
A white guy gets mixed in with some drug cartels down in Mexico. He meets the wife of the crime boss and has sex with her. They’re madly in love but the crime boss finds out. He isn’t mad, he’s just sad. Alright. But he has to flex his muscles to show his strength so he beats up our heroic lead and leaves him for dead on the side of the road. Then he takes his wife, cuts up her face, forces her to become a heroin addict, then forces her to work in a whorehouse for several months so she can catch all types of diseases and get beat up by other men. Yeah. Definitely equal punishment for the same crime... Anyway, the hero recuperates with the help of some Mexicans and takes revenge on the crime boss’s henchmen by killing them. Eventually he battles his way back to the crime boss and right when we are about to see the ultimate battle, the crime boss says “Ask me for forgiveness.” And the white guy says “I ask for forgiveness” And the crime boss says “...K.” And the crime boss lets the white guy leave with his wife, oh except by the way, his wife is dying (Months of venereal diseases and assault will do that to a little lady). But white guy and wife get to see each other one more time before the wife dies and they bury her. The End.
“The Man Who Gave up His Name”
I have to be honest with you. I listened to this 2 and a half hour novella and I can’t remember a thing. I think it was about a white guy. The End.
“Legends of the Fall”
A white guy (You seeing a pattern here?) who is basically raised by an Indian goes to World War I with his two brothers where one of them gets killed. This messes up the white guy who begins to take on dangerous seafaring jobs involving smuggling in alcohol (This is prohibition after all) with the help of a Mexican, a Cree, and a Norwegian. Oh were you looking for names? They don’t have names. That’s what the book calls them. The book names all 60 of white guy’s relatives and associates but characters actually involved with the plot? Not important. Anyway the white guy has a wife at home named Susannah but he abandons her and she marries his only living brother. After many adventures, white guy comes home to his ranch where he meets a 16-year-old named Two and he goes to bed with her. Then he marries her. I kid you not, that’s how quickly things happen in this story. So okay he is married to Two and they have a child together named Three (And you thought modern names were stupid) but white guy needs to go on another beer run to make some more money. He brings Two with him, and she promptly gets shot and killed by a lawman. This makes white guy sad again. Later on he meets with Susannah again who is still in love with him, but she is also a little crazy. See white guy’s brother became a politician, and since Susannah is with a politician now, she needs to stop being so hysterical and impulsive. But her impulses lead her right back into the arms of white guy and she says if they don’t get back together she will kill herself. Meanwhile, some Irish guys (Again, I’m only calling them that because the book calls them the Irish guys. They have no names.) are looking for white guy and his family. White guy’s alcohol shipping business is intruding on their territory and they want to take revenge. So alright white guy fights the Irish guys off for awhile, meets up with Susannah again and they declare their love for each other. The brother finds out and everyone is sad. Susannah is so sad that she goes off and kills herself. So white guy goes back to his ranch but the Irish guys follow him. They are about to blow white guy to bits when out of nowhere white guy’s dad shoots them with a shotgun. I know I haven’t mentioned white guy’s dad, like, at all but trust me it isn’t important. The End.
Now I don’t like to be the “you need to be more sensitive to minorities and women” guy, and normally I don’t really care about that if the story and characters are good. But when you give your minority characters names like “the Irish guys” and “The Mexican” and “the big Mexican,” you don’t really give me much of a choice. And the way women get treated in this book makes me wonder if the author has some repressed mommy issues or maybe a girl who broke his heart because Jesus he loves to torture women. And it’s always women who are causing problems for the heroes. Jeez women, why do you have to be such succubi whores? Why do you have to talk so much and act all crazy all the time? Can’t you let rugged men brood and drink in peace?
All of this is written in a clipped, terse style that screams “Hemingway was AWESOME, huh? Wanna see me write like him?” There is practically no dialogue. Years pass from paragraph to paragraph until they don’t so that the book can take its sweet old time describing the interior of a living room. Harrison really knows what details are important. It’s all a bunch of summarizing until we can get to the melodrama and there is absolutely no humor in-between. All of these dime-store novel plots are played totally straight, complete with declarations of love and epic gun battles. Pew Pew!
In other words, learn from the time I spent listening to this so you don't waste yours. As Jim "I-wanna-suck-Hemingway's-white-elephant" Harrison might say:
It was bad.
My interest in Jim Harrison was piqued when I read about him in an NPR article immediately following his death. Now I wish I had never read that article because boy was this a waste of time. Allow me to summarize these three novellas as best as I can:
“Revenge”
A white guy gets mixed in with some drug cartels down in Mexico. He meets the wife of the crime boss and has sex with her. They’re madly in love but the crime boss finds out. He isn’t mad, he’s just sad. Alright. But he has to flex his muscles to show his strength so he beats up our heroic lead and leaves him for dead on the side of the road. Then he takes his wife, cuts up her face, forces her to become a heroin addict, then forces her to work in a whorehouse for several months so she can catch all types of diseases and get beat up by other men. Yeah. Definitely equal punishment for the same crime... Anyway, the hero recuperates with the help of some Mexicans and takes revenge on the crime boss’s henchmen by killing them. Eventually he battles his way back to the crime boss and right when we are about to see the ultimate battle, the crime boss says “Ask me for forgiveness.” And the white guy says “I ask for forgiveness” And the crime boss says “...K.” And the crime boss lets the white guy leave with his wife, oh except by the way, his wife is dying (Months of venereal diseases and assault will do that to a little lady). But white guy and wife get to see each other one more time before the wife dies and they bury her. The End.
“The Man Who Gave up His Name”
I have to be honest with you. I listened to this 2 and a half hour novella and I can’t remember a thing. I think it was about a white guy. The End.
“Legends of the Fall”
A white guy (You seeing a pattern here?) who is basically raised by an Indian goes to World War I with his two brothers where one of them gets killed. This messes up the white guy who begins to take on dangerous seafaring jobs involving smuggling in alcohol (This is prohibition after all) with the help of a Mexican, a Cree, and a Norwegian. Oh were you looking for names? They don’t have names. That’s what the book calls them. The book names all 60 of white guy’s relatives and associates but characters actually involved with the plot? Not important. Anyway the white guy has a wife at home named Susannah but he abandons her and she marries his only living brother. After many adventures, white guy comes home to his ranch where he meets a 16-year-old named Two and he goes to bed with her. Then he marries her. I kid you not, that’s how quickly things happen in this story. So okay he is married to Two and they have a child together named Three (And you thought modern names were stupid) but white guy needs to go on another beer run to make some more money. He brings Two with him, and she promptly gets shot and killed by a lawman. This makes white guy sad again. Later on he meets with Susannah again who is still in love with him, but she is also a little crazy. See white guy’s brother became a politician, and since Susannah is with a politician now, she needs to stop being so hysterical and impulsive. But her impulses lead her right back into the arms of white guy and she says if they don’t get back together she will kill herself. Meanwhile, some Irish guys (Again, I’m only calling them that because the book calls them the Irish guys. They have no names.) are looking for white guy and his family. White guy’s alcohol shipping business is intruding on their territory and they want to take revenge. So alright white guy fights the Irish guys off for awhile, meets up with Susannah again and they declare their love for each other. The brother finds out and everyone is sad. Susannah is so sad that she goes off and kills herself. So white guy goes back to his ranch but the Irish guys follow him. They are about to blow white guy to bits when out of nowhere white guy’s dad shoots them with a shotgun. I know I haven’t mentioned white guy’s dad, like, at all but trust me it isn’t important. The End.
Now I don’t like to be the “you need to be more sensitive to minorities and women” guy, and normally I don’t really care about that if the story and characters are good. But when you give your minority characters names like “the Irish guys” and “The Mexican” and “the big Mexican,” you don’t really give me much of a choice. And the way women get treated in this book makes me wonder if the author has some repressed mommy issues or maybe a girl who broke his heart because Jesus he loves to torture women. And it’s always women who are causing problems for the heroes. Jeez women, why do you have to be such succubi whores? Why do you have to talk so much and act all crazy all the time? Can’t you let rugged men brood and drink in peace?
All of this is written in a clipped, terse style that screams “Hemingway was AWESOME, huh? Wanna see me write like him?” There is practically no dialogue. Years pass from paragraph to paragraph until they don’t so that the book can take its sweet old time describing the interior of a living room. Harrison really knows what details are important. It’s all a bunch of summarizing until we can get to the melodrama and there is absolutely no humor in-between. All of these dime-store novel plots are played totally straight, complete with declarations of love and epic gun battles. Pew Pew!
In other words, learn from the time I spent listening to this so you don't waste yours. As Jim "I-wanna-suck-Hemingway's-white-elephant" Harrison might say:
It was bad.
July 22, 2018
It's rare you go in with high expectations and end up turning the book over, again and again, to check if you really are reading the book you set out to do. Even more so when the blurb quotes NYT to say it "may well be the best set of novellas to appear in this country during the last quarter century"
In truth, it is a terrible collection, full of clichés and, rather too frequently, more than a whiff of Mary Sue-like wish fulfilment. The first novella is the most banal revenge-story, the second jumps the shark so many times it left me flabbergasted and the third one, the title story, though an ever so slight improvement on what's preceded it, is devoid of a meaningful structure with characters that are distressingly one-dimensional.
In truth, it is a terrible collection, full of clichés and, rather too frequently, more than a whiff of Mary Sue-like wish fulfilment. The first novella is the most banal revenge-story, the second jumps the shark so many times it left me flabbergasted and the third one, the title story, though an ever so slight improvement on what's preceded it, is devoid of a meaningful structure with characters that are distressingly one-dimensional.
June 1, 2022
Brilliant trilogy with both Revenge and Legends of the Fall two of the saddest most beautiful short novels I have read in awhile, have plenty of tissues near by😭
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