Rating: 
Summary: CAN RELATE TO THE CLOSE FAMILY RELATIONSHIP
Review: In reading The River Runs Through It,for an assignment for English Comp. class for college,at the age of 52. I found that the book was slow and dull in the beginning ,but picked up with interesting reading, and I couldn't set the book down, untill I had finished it.As I read it for the second time, I could see alot more to the book then the first time and could relate to the family almost as if it were mine in growing up. It was the first book I had read in years, and would recomend it to any one who likes to read.There is so much more to the book the second time reading it, that after reading it I want to read more books along the same line.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best three books ever written
Review: If you only read three books in you life they should be "A Tale of Two Cities", "The Grapes of Wrath" and "A River Runs Through It". Norman Maclean is a wordsmith in good company with Dickens and Steinbeck. I am sad that he didn't start writing until later in life so there is not much of his work around. There is a lot detail in the book, some say too much. For me that detail mixed with a touch of sarcasm is what separates a great writer from a good one. Its the kind of detail you might hear if Mr. Maclean was in the room telling you the story in person.A word about the movie. The movie screenplay is reasonably loyal to the book and where it was not, the director of the movie made an effort to pay tribute to the author. The movie is great to but to experience all that Mr. Maclean has to offer, read the book too. The short stories in the book are also great and sometimes funny. Three good stories in one book is a great deal.
Rating:
Summary: I am haunted by this book...
Review: I have read this book twice now, and plan to read it several more times through my lifetime. It is a powerful book that speaks to a person on so many different levels. I saw the story the first time... I saw the art the second. As others have said, this book is not about fly-fishing per se. It is about the powerful bonds between family members.
Rating: 
Summary: Better than the movie?
Review: After thouroughly reading this book, I found that I enjoyed the movie version a lot better. At times I found my self un-interested in whst was going on. Some books don't use enough details, but in my opinion this book used a few too many. I feel that the book started off extremely slow, but got better towards the second half. I was also rather un-happy with the ending. If I could rate this book with negative stars, i would.
Rating:
Summary: Better than the movie?
Review: YES! This book gets better every time I read it. After reading it 5 times through, I feel I'm about ready to head out and do some fly-fishing! Late at night my family gathers around the fireplace as I read them passages from the book. I'm hoping my kids will grow up just like those boys. Ever since i first read this book, my life has changed. Im starting to pay my taxes, my family life is great, and i have more friends than ever. Every month i go out and by a new copy of the book, acting as if i've never read it before. If i could give this book more than 5 stars, i sure would. My relationship with my girlfriends are great now! and my wife says I'm beginning to act like the man she married again. THANK YOU norman f. madean. thank you!
Rating: 
Summary: Quick and Entertaining.
Review: Having never seen the movie, I have a difficult time envisioning how they put this story onto film. I found the title story really well-written and very compelling. You find yourself rooting for the brothers and wishing the father could still fish like he used to.... the whole religious experience. The other stories were a little less compelling ... but did give insight into a lost way of life.
Rating:
Summary: A Paean to a Life Too Full
Review: A story about the one that got away, the brother, not the fish.
Rating:
Summary: Pure
Review: Exquisite and pure as wood, or water or anything that is solely itself. A simple story of life, two brothers, family, passion and water but as we all know none of that is simple. Rich in nuance and tenderness, quietness and rage; the river and the life. Norman Maclean says in 160 pages more in the spaces in between the words and the things the characters do not say, than most authors say in 500 pages.
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Summary: The beauty of nature captured in words
Review: I went into this novel having already seen, and enjoyed, the movie. I had travelled to the area of the country that it was set in several times, and I had been fly-fishing while out there. But I was struck by how the book was still able to move me. Maclean's eloquent descriptions are able to come as close to transporting the reader to the place being written of as any novel I have ever read. You don't have to love the mountains, fly-fishing, or your little brother to like this book. But if you try to understand what these things meant to Maclean then you will get much more out of this wonderful work.
Rating:
Summary: 3 Stars Because There Are No Halves
Review: A River Runs Through It is an easy book to like. However, it's easy to like for what I think are the wrong reasons. Don't get me wrong, it's a good book, and beautifully written, but I am of the opinion that there is a difference between beautifully written and well written. The book relies very heavily on its wording and description. MacLean paints a beautiful picture of the rivers, the state of Montana, and the time and place in general. However, to someone who sees through this as simply rather ornate physical exposition, that person will soon find himself beyond it and anxious for a complex plot with strong thematic influence. It is here that we find the flaw in this novel. There seems to be a fairly simple plot, two brothers, one on the straight and narrow, the other not, and the struggle the first finds in trying to help the second. This lends itself very little to any sort of separate theme, and the reader finds himself reading the plot and the theme as one. This works fine for a bestseller, or in this case a film to be made into a movie, but from a strict literary standpoint, I personally feel that this book is a little weak where a novel should be strongest, while being incredibly strong in an area that it really need not be. There is something to be said for such powerful descriptive writing. Such breathtaking images surely do take one's breath away and leave some with an urge to experience or reproduce that image. This is probably why there is a film version of this movie. Albeit irrelevant to the strength of the book, the movie itself is a visual masterpiece, which to me suggests that that was the impression gained by its makers of the novel. It is a gift, this way of writing, but I view it as only one tool that a writer should have hanging in his belt. MacLean's novel needs to show me a little more, especially about what he is saying with this book. In my literature class we have studied books with the mindset that authors use their novels to show some viewpoint they have on the way the world works. MacLean doesn't do a lot of that. He gives us a little about family, and a whole lot about fly fishing, but nothing overlaying about humanity in general, or any real personal opinion. This fits in with my thinking that the book is little meat and a lot of garnish. I don't want to sound too critical of the book; I enjoyed reading it. It's just that when you step back and look at this novel from a purely literary standpoint, you may find that it doesn't do all that it could. It does, however, paint a spectacular picture of something the author feels a deep love for, and from a descriptive writing perspective, leaves many other novels in the dust.
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