From Publishers Weekly
Best known for his fiction, Harrison here sorts magazine pieces written over four decades. "Food" celebrates the pleasures of cooking, eating and drinking, with exuberant disdain for trendy health-consciousness. "Travel and Sport" defends hunting and fishing as time-honored, ecologically sound pursuits that, practiced responsibly, draw us closer to the natural world. "Literary Matters" includes book reviews and dissections of the author's own working methods. Harrison, who came of professional age in the 1960s, favors a casual, intimate journalistic style that reveals as much about himself as his topics. We learn about the loss of an eye when he was seven and the deaths of his father and sister when he was 19. While a few phrases and stories turn up more than once, and while some of the early-'70s sporting pieces display a hip swagger that now seems hilariously dated, the essays taken together suggest the life experience and philosophy that underpin such novels as Legends of the Fall and Dalva.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Poet, novelist, gourmet, and self-described "amateur naturalist," Harrison's wide interests make eclecticism one of the hallmarks of his writing. This volume, drawn from over 25 years of work, collects pieces that first appeared in forums as diverse as Sports Illustrated , Antaeus , and The Psychoanalytic Review , as well as several unpublished essays. While not all the material has held up equally well, few of the pieces are without moments of insight or pleasure, and some, such as "Passacaglia on Getting Lost," are near-classics. The unifying thread is Harrison's passion for the genuine, for a life lived exuberantly and deeply. Whether describing the pleasures of a good poem, a good meal, a fishing trip, or a walk in the Michigan woods, Harrison is really celebrating the things he loves. For larger collections and where interest warrants.
- Lawrence Rungren, Bedford Free P.L., Mass.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
“One of the most interesting and entertaining bodies of work by any writer of his generation.”—Alan Cheuse, Chicago Tribune
“Harrison is truly one of those writers whose books are hard to put down.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review
“One of the few truly high-test males who’ve passed through the eye of the needle.”—Louise Erdich, MS.
About the Author
Jim Harrison is a poet and novelist whose books include "The Woman Lit by Fireflies", "Dalva", "Legends of the Fall", "Farmer", "The Road Home" and others. He lives on a farm in northern Michigan.
