A River Runs through It and Other Stories, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition

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

Rating:
Summary: The American Family, Fishing and Gratitude
Review: I first read this book when I was learning how to flyfish, thinking that this would be a fun fishing book. What I discovered instead was a book which revealed how families relate and provided me with a greater understanding of my own family, how we relate to each other and dealing with, or rather accepting the disfunction, joy and sorrows present in every family. Norman Maclean's prose, reminiscent of Steinbeck, is beautiful and to the point. His narrative draws the reader in to the relatonship of a father and his two very different sons as they wrestle with these differences. Norman Maclean's gift is evident from the opening line,"In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing" to the last few pages which bring the entire book into sharp focus. Personally, I feel the most memorable line of the book appears on the last page when the author writes "It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us."

It is unfortunate that this book is thought of as a book about fishing. Fishing is merely the vehicle which allows the reader to better understand how each member of this troubled yet loving family relates to each other and reveals the mysteries of every family's struggle.

I strongly recommend this book to everyone, especially to those who do not fish. It is truly one of the rare books that transcends the ink and paper on which it is printed to weave itself indelibly into the lives of its reader.

Rating:
Summary: The Further One Gets From Missoula, MT
Review: I grew up in Billings, MT, on the other side of the Continental Divide, closer to where the movie was filmed than where the book was written. I now live in Missoula, a town where you can still find Front Street Poker, fly fishermen on Clark Fork, and people enjoying drinks while toasting to their own fair city.

It is, as an angling friend of mine highlighted, probably one of the few places on the planet where bar bathroom graffiti includes the line "That guy has a small johnson and he uses bait." That is a strong insult in these parts.

A River Runs through It is a lot of things. It's the story of a family growing closer as it falls apart. It's a story of being unable to help those who need it most. And it's a story of place.

Regardless, anyone who's ever lived in this part of the world needs to pick this book up. A River Runs Through It is great. The other stories are well-written as well, focusing on memories from working summers for the forest service, including a stint down in the Bitterroots.

Heartily recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A Manual on Fly Fishing
Review: I had to read this for freshman English summer reading. I thought it would be a good read. However, it is far too descriptive of unimportant things like the way to create different types of flies to catch fish with. The story takes a backseat to the unending step-by-step instructions. It is simply awful how boring all of it is. The characters are not well developed and one does not get a sense of their personalities at all. I hated this book.

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

Rating:
Summary: I teach this novel every year
Review: If a class of 30 jaded high school juniors sit back and say "Wow" at the end of the last page, it must really be something. One of the best little books of American Lit ever.

Rating:
Summary: A story of depth and meaning
Review: In his book, A River Runs Through It, Norman Maclean has created a modern masterpiece of 20th century literature. Although this work has not yet been recognized in mainstream America for its depth, as with many other works of American literature it will gain more genius through the understanding that only time allows. Maclean's unobtrusive and poetic prose leave the reader contemplating the intricacies and perplexities of life, while also allowing the reader to bask in the sunlight of absolute purity. A family whose love was boundless, but whose communications of the heart were cumbersome and awkward, provides the stone from which this story is hewn. Throughout the book, Maclean intertwines the art of fly-fishing and his vivid descriptions of a virgin Montana to narrate the tale of the Maclean family and their religion, both in the chapel and on the river. The idea of nature and God being synonymous is not a new one, but Maclean adds meaning to this old axiom though a father and his sons reveling in the spirituality of an untouched world, a coming back to ones roots. Throughout his narrative Norman Maclean spends a considerable amount of time detailing the art of fly-fishing, but this never detracts from his underlying thesis of life. The book ends with a style unsurpassed in American literature, leaving the reader with a profound sense of melancholy and nostalgic longings. A River Runs Through It is an important work for those seeking a more complete understanding of the complexities of humanity and the art of fly-fishing.

Rating:
Summary: A book you will read more than once.
Review: Norman Maclean began writing late in life, passing away not long after penning this extraordinary piece, depriving us of his gift just as he arrived. The book is actually three short stories but the focus is clearly on the novella "A River Runs Through It". On the surface, the title story is his recollections of his father, a Presbyterian minister, and his troubled but talented brother, with whom he fished. Set in the Montana of Maclean's youth, he paints exquisitely vivid and beautiful word pictures of a land and water and family now gone. At the core is the frustration of the often-futile attempt of trying to help another or trying to save a loved one from their self-destruction. There are passages here which are as wonderfully written as anything in English. Not a page passes without discovering a superbly crafted gem. "So it is...that we can seldom help anybody. Either we don't know what part to give or maybe we don't like to give any part of ourselves. Then, more often than not, the part that is needed is not wanted. And even more often, we do not have the part that is needed." "It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us." Throughout the tale, his life, his religion, his family, his fly-fishing are metaphors, each for the other. And the words of each are heard in the waters and stone of the rivers. He is haunted, he tells us, by waters. I am haunted by his words which approach poetry.

Rating:
Summary: Trout fishing in Montana
Review: The river in question is the Blackfoot River. Fishing at the canyon near the Clearwater Bridge required roll casting, a difficult maneuver. Of the brothers, Paul and Norman Maclean, Paul was the better fisherman. Paul practiced what he called shadow casting to entice the fish.

One of the problems was that Norman never wanted to hear too much about his brother Paul. When Paul was thirty two a police desk sergeant told Norman that Paul was drinking too much and getting in trouble too much.

Fishing in the Elkhorn was undertaken by Paul, Norman, and Norman's future brother-in-law, Neal, who was really not up to such exertion. A fisherman tries to make a world perfect and apart and walks out to a stream to separate himself from others. When Neal went with Paul and Norman he got sunburned when he fells asleep on the sandbar and the brothers fished the stream in different areas.

Paul said he would never leave Montana and go to a larger newspaper. Norman's father, a Presbyterian minister and avid fisherman and hunter was the only man he knew who used beautiful naturally in his speech.

Other stories in the collection concern Norman's stints as a forest service ranger and logger.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: This book is suited for anyone who has ever felt a twinge of emotion for something or someone other than themselves. A River Runs Through It will sweep through your heart and leave images in your mind long after the pages are read. It is so beautifully written that I found myself reading the same page over and over again. Anyone who passes this book up as a book about 'fishing' is missing out on one of the greatest achievements in American literature. It is amazing.