Rating: 
Summary: Good Story, interesting style
Review: Like most of the people I know who read this book, I picked it up after seeing the movie. While I enjoyed both in their own right, they are so different that going from one to the other adds nothing to either.While the movie's most notable qualities are a breath of story and an epic scope, the book is beautiful for its economy of words and distant style. Written in the third person, as opposed to the film's heavy handed first person, the perspective is all knowing, yet reveals few details. The author brings the characters to life to some degree, but what is amazing is that they are interesting given their one dimensionality. The story, short as it is, contains much less of the deep intertwined relations of the movie, but I believe that makes it much improved over the screen version. While everyone focuses on the title story, the other two that are included are also enjoyable. As a read, each of the stories is quite quick and complete. If you are taking a trip in several staggered stints, this is a good book to take along and pass the time.
Rating: 
Summary: Found the Book Disappointing!
Review: Sorry, but I liked the movie much better than the book. I like for my "women" characters to be as clearly defined as the men, and I like a sensitivity in understanding of women that Larry McMurtry has shown in his work. I consider Larry McMurtry, as a male author, to have an uncanny insight into the nature of women.
This is an okay story, although gloomy. Perhaps male readers will be more appreciative. There are poetic narrative moments, but not enough to compensate.
Evelyn Horan - teacher/counselor/author
Jeannie, A Texas Frontier Girl Books One - Three
Rating:
Summary: 10x better than the movies
Review: That two of the three novellas in this book have been produced as motion pictures should tell you something. In fact, when I first read this collection I thought each of the three stories sounded like fleshed-out Hollywood 'treatments'. The writing is tight and concise, yet stunningly poignant. Harrison's true calling is as a poet, and he uses that training to full effect, creating crystal-clear images in the turn of a phrase. The result is never abstract, however; Harrison is also an outdoorsman whose knowledge of nature is equaled by his uncanny ability to portray his characters' surroundings in lucid, even beautiful prose. Read this book. You may become a Harrison adict.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting book
Review: The book is interesting in that two of the three novellas in it have been made into movies, Revenge, and Legends of the Fall. I'll go on record saying that although I enjoyed the movie, I thought the book was better, although it's not really that long a book. Still, even in a work this short, there are depths that can't really be explored in a 2-hour movie, so if you liked the movie, I would strongly recommend you read the book. Harrison has a direct but poetic style, and his male characters are well-drawn and believable. The women don't have much of a role in his books, but I don't mind that really. Harrison is a writer about old-fashioned masculine virtues and ideals of the sort that perhaps don't exist in our society anymore. But if you want equally well-developed women characters, you'll need to look elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant use of symbolism to represent basic human truths
Review: THis is a classic novela. Among the best I have ever read. Harrison masters symbolism to represent the division of traditional family values and the modern age of the industrial century. By going "over the mountains" the characters are leaving safety. THis anti war book is brilliant. A masterpiece that even a soldier like myself can enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: A timeless work of art.
Review: Upon watching the film for the first time, I wanted to know more about the characters. The film, although well casted (Pitt,Hopkins,Quin and Ormond),does not do much for the book. The book is a timeless work of art. When reading a book, I tend to feel the pain and suroundings of each chatacter. You can only do this to a point in a film. With the book I was lost in the life, and death of the Ludlow family. It was so wounderful to get inside Tristin and the others and experience what their life was all about. Mr. Harrison has done wounderful works of art. I hope to find more!
Rating:
Summary: A timeless work of art.
Review: Upon watching the film for the first time, I wanted to know more about the characters. The film, although well casted (Pitt,Hopkins,Quin and Ormond),does not do much for the book. The book is a timeless work of art. When reading a book, I tend to feel the pain and suroundings of each chatacter. You can only do this to a point in a film. With the book I was lost in the life, and death of the Ludlow family. It was so wounderful to get inside Tristin and the others and experience what their life was all about. Mr. Harrison has done wounderful works of art. I hope to find more!
| 
