jeffmauch 's review for:

A River Runs Through it and Other Stories by Norman Maclean

5.0

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This book is an anomaly in a few different ways. First, it's the authors first piece of work which he wrote at age 70. Second, while its a shorter novel, it truly reads like poetry. I can't think of a book that I've found the imagery to be so vivid and all consuming as this. It's as if the author has spent their entire life having this story within them, perfecting every word and description, only to have it burst out of them in the twilight of their lives as this incredibly beautiful masterpiece. While fly fishing is the main catalyst for telling this story, you don't have to care or understand it at all to enjoy it. The story itself is simply told with very few characters or dialogue. The setting of small towns and rivers of the North West is perfect and makes you yearn to see these beautifully described landscapes, though you can perfectly picture them in your mind through the author's prose. I'm honestly blown away by the beauty within this novel. It's a rare thing to constantly put a book down after a paragraph or chapter and simply say, "Wow", under one's breath, but this novel is moving in a ways I've never seen before. It's simple and stunning.