Rating: 
Summary: The Beast God Forgot to Invent
Review: A friend of mine turned me on to Jim Harrison several years ago. I've read almost everything he has written and this set of three stories seems to tell his story. He would probably scoff at this remark, but in this book and The Road Home he seems to expose himself. If you have enjoyed Harrison in the past you will certainly love and admire this book.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: And here's why: many authors write in the first person to give themselves an alter ego. Not so here, as Harrison uses the first person to give us 3 truly engaging partners in crime, who let us in on the most intimate details of their lives. His genius is that, although he brings the disparate together, he also understands their inevitable separation. These stories begin in Minnesota. They always come back there. Worth your time, if only to meet people who should go on and reoprt back "beyond the end"....
Rating:
Summary: He is back. Greatness from the Hedonist King
Review: For lovers of Harrison, he is back. These stories are a lot of fun and from the veins of prior Novellas. Two are clearly self portraits with amplification of his personal frailties (amplified by age), but written well beyond/above his frequently stated hero, Hemingway. There, I said it, he would not! The middle novella is a return of a prior character and fun to read. If you have hedonistic tendancies, get this book. If you unfamiliar with Harrison two novellas, Revenge and Legends of the Fall have been flicked. ( Kevin Costner; Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt, Julie Ormond respectively)
Rating:
Summary: ~It's as if you were having a conversation with the author ~
Review: I have just found a new obsession and it's Jim Harrison! Not the man, but his books of course. I am always open to a new discovery and in this case, what a pleasant surprise. Jim Harrison has an impressive command of words that keep his story(s), in this case 3 of them, flowing without being bogged down with excessive descriptions. It's as if you were having a conversation with him rather than reading a book.
After doing some research I found that he had written "Legends of the Fall", and that is one of my all time favorite movies. I just can't understand why he doesn't get more press. I have mentioned his books to several people and none of them were aware of him at all. He difinitely is a talent not to be missed. I have already ordered "A Woman Lit by Fireflies" and looking forward to his upcoming Memoir!
One more thing,if you are not familiar with his writing take a peak inside one of his books, you might just like what you see.
Rating:
Summary: ~It's as if you were having a conversation with the author ~
Review: I have just found a new obsession and it's Jim Harrison! Not the man, but his books of course. I am always open to a new discovery and in this case, what a pleasant surprise. Jim Harrison has an impressive command of words that keep his story(s), in this case 3 of them, flowing without being bogged down with excessive descriptions. It's as if you were having a conversation with him rather than reading a book.
After doing some research I found that he had written "Legends of the Fall", and that is one of my all time favorite movies. I just can't understand why he doesn't get more press. I have mentioned his books to several people and none of them were aware of him at all. He difinitely is a talent not to be missed. I have already ordered "A Woman Lit by Fireflies" and looking forward to his upcoming Memoir!
One more thing,if you are not familiar with his writing take a peak inside one of his books, you might just like what you see.
Rating:
Summary: Thought-provoking from start to finish
Review: I read the first sentence of the title novella five or ten times before I could go on. (I won't tell you what it is... get the book and read it yourself.) Then I read it to my brother-in-law, my wife and a potter friend. I memorized it and now feel strongly compelled to scratch it on subway wall. It's that good. There are many such profound sentences throughout these three simply plotted but canyon-deep novellas. Witty and thoughful sentences and paragraphs abound yielding fuel for prolonged sessions of enjoyment and pondering. Thank you, Jim Harrison!
Rating: 
Summary: A primal howl and poetic prose
Review: In a wistful moment of paradox, Jim Harrison once said only animals keep us human. Of course, this primal poet also once said he'd say anything to keep a reader's ear for a minute. But Harrison, whose "Legends of the Fall" established him as a master of the masculine retro-myth, didn't get there with Hemingway-esque bombast. His stories strip people -- particularly men -- to their intoxicating animal essence. "The Beast God Forgot to Invent" is a collection of three novellas about humans and animals, about the effects of desire, dreams and death on men. Some of them dream of becoming bears, some walk away from civilization, some just go crazy. The characters are sometimes eminently joyless, other times staggeringly funny, but always only a coyote's howl from the animal inside. "The Beast God Forgot to Invent" is pure Harrison, a bone-jarring gallop over the landscape of masculinity, and might be part of a new resurgence in the novella form. His occasionally complex prose echoes Faulkner, but his voice is evocative and primal, without being beastly.
Rating:
Summary: Lusty Pan Theme
Review: In the title story the narrator, a fifty-something antique book collecter and real estate agent, feels chagrined living in the north Michigan wilderness where he lives a paradoxical life of ruggedness tempered by his dependence on consumerism, creature comforts and gadgetry. Divorced twice, the lonely narrator lusts over young women who flock Joe, a feral young man, who, sustaining a brain injury, takes on the role of the town's "Noble Savage." The novella's comedy and deep, soulful pain comes from the sexually-frustrated, overintellectual narrator idealizing Joe into something akin to a hypersexualized Pan. It's clear that the narrator lives vicariously through what he perceives as Joe's unlimited sexual prowess. The novella is well-paced and combines a compelling narrative with a meditation on the conflict between our impulse to live the simple, "real" life resembling our animal nature and our impulse to indulge in our "sophisticated" passions, which too often make us forget who we really are.
Rating:
Summary: Three Novellas by Our Modern-day Hemingway
Review: It has been a while since I've read anything by Jim Harrison, and after reading this book, I can't quite remember why it's been so long. Harrison is an amazing wordsmith, and his stories are very engaging, in a hedonistic, manly kind of way. The Beast God Forgot to Invent is a compilation of three novellas, each about different men at interesting points in their lives.The title novella is about a retired book dealer who is charged with the task of describing the last days of his brain-damaged, womanizing friend, Joe, to the coroner...This book has definitely inspired me to continue reading Jim Harrison's works. I encourage you to pick this book up. It's an enjoyable read, interspersed with profound truth.
Rating:
Summary: Three Novellas by Our Modern-day Hemingway
Review: It has been a while since I've read anything by Jim Harrison, and after reading this book, I can't quite remember why it's been so long. Harrison is an amazing wordsmith, and his stories are very engaging, in a hedonistic, manly kind of way. The Beast God Forgot to Invent is a compilation of three novellas, each about different men at interesting points in their lives.The title novella is about a retired book dealer who is charged with the task of describing the last days of his brain-damaged, womanizing friend, Joe, to the coroner...This book has definitely inspired me to continue reading Jim Harrison's works. I encourage you to pick this book up. It's an enjoyable read, interspersed with profound truth.
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