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ehays84 's review for:
A River Runs Through it and Other Stories
by Norman Maclean
?Well, reading this was a little strange since I have seen the movie several times before finally reading the book. I have known that I want to read this for years, but finally got around to it.
I think I have two main reactions to it. First off, it is a beautiful book, but it can't quite make up its mind about a number of things. First, is it a memoir? Is it fiction? Is it a dramatic tragedy? In some ways, you could say the fact that it had all of these elements makes it great, but I kind of think he should have just written it as a sort of eulogy to his brother Paul rather than having so much of his own mystical thoughts about fishing and rivers and the movement of time and all that.
Second, I read on Wikipedia that he taught mainly Shakespeare at Chicago, and this really makes sense. I think that we have really lost the genre of tragedy in recent generations, and I think this book echoes the great Shakespearean tragedies. It is a beautiful and terribly sad read, like Hamlet or Lear before it.
I can't say I am much of a fisherman, although I have fished enough to know why people love it and to respect the fish. Cleaning a fish certainly makes you conscious of what you are doing. But for Maclean, it is almost a religion, and truly, his worldview seems to be a blend of the sort of deep reflective thoughts men have while drinking whisky, good old Scottish Presbyterianism, the love of the wilds of Montana, and fly fishing.
Certainly a book everyone should read. I plan to read it again in the future, because there is a lot of deep stuff that I think I could access more in future reads of it.
I think I have two main reactions to it. First off, it is a beautiful book, but it can't quite make up its mind about a number of things. First, is it a memoir? Is it fiction? Is it a dramatic tragedy? In some ways, you could say the fact that it had all of these elements makes it great, but I kind of think he should have just written it as a sort of eulogy to his brother Paul rather than having so much of his own mystical thoughts about fishing and rivers and the movement of time and all that.
Second, I read on Wikipedia that he taught mainly Shakespeare at Chicago, and this really makes sense. I think that we have really lost the genre of tragedy in recent generations, and I think this book echoes the great Shakespearean tragedies. It is a beautiful and terribly sad read, like Hamlet or Lear before it.
I can't say I am much of a fisherman, although I have fished enough to know why people love it and to respect the fish. Cleaning a fish certainly makes you conscious of what you are doing. But for Maclean, it is almost a religion, and truly, his worldview seems to be a blend of the sort of deep reflective thoughts men have while drinking whisky, good old Scottish Presbyterianism, the love of the wilds of Montana, and fly fishing.
Certainly a book everyone should read. I plan to read it again in the future, because there is a lot of deep stuff that I think I could access more in future reads of it.