The Road Home

Rating:
Summary: Incredible Experience
Review: After discussing this book with several other literature-lovers, I've found that you either really love this book or you're so-so on it. Women love it more than men, which surprised me, but then, I'm a woman and really loved it and don't see how you can't. But I also love nature, which is BIG in Harrison, and psychological depth, and romance, and family ties, and it's all there.

Rating:
Summary: ALMOST BORING
Review: I was completely surprised by the quality of this novel. I expected something along the lines of the only other work I have read by Jim Harrison,'Legend of the Falls'. While 'The Road Home' has some cross references to that earlier, slighter work, it is a substantially greater novel. The characters are so well defined they feel like relatives, people you have known for a lifetime. Harrison manages to evoke so much compassion for his characters that they are truly three dimensional, sometimes threatening to jump right off the page. Harrison's description of the American West is convincing and detailed (and fascinating to a reader like myself from another country). I recommend this work without reservation...as a reader of Harrison you can rest assured you are in the hands of an author who knows his craft, know his characters and story and knows how not to disappoint his readers.

Rating:
Summary: an appropriate sequel to dalva, provides closure.
Review: I've been a fan of Harrison since I read 'Legends of the Fall' in Esquire back in the 70's, so it was with great anticipation that I picked up this, his first novel in a decade and companion to the excellent 'Dalva'. I began to read slowly, savoring the language and trying to make the pleasure last longer. Instead I found that by the end of the book I had the unmistakeable feeling that I was reading the same character over and over. Each character sings the same refrain "The government ripped off the indian, the government ruined the ecosystem" at the same time they seem to argue for more government regulations. This refrain comes from Dalva, a social worker, her mother Naomi, a teacher, and Dalva's son Nelse, an itinerent naturalist who moves from one federaly funded bird counting project to the next. I truly hope that this was meant to be ironic, at least then I can accept its repetitiveness. Harrison is a terrific writer, though in contradiction to some of the other posts here he is not by any means in the same league as Twain and Hemingway, and I highly recommend Dalva, Legends of the Fall, Just Before Dark, Sundog and his poetry. But don't shoot your money on 'The Road Home'. Harrison should have heeded T. Wolf and remembered that it's a place you can't go again.

Rating:
Summary: Its about coming to terms with his life
Review: Its clearly evident the Jim Harrison is preparing for something. What that is only he knows. After reading some of the other reviews I think people are missing the depth that he went to in writing this book. Each character relfects who he is and who he was up until this point. Its no wonder that he had a hard time returning to reality after writing it. Also notice the lack of punctuation. This book rambles, rumbles and tumbles through a vast arrary of emotions, time and distances. It is not for the faint of heart. Life is always intersting from the front seat of a truck.

Rating:
Summary: Best Book, Favorite Author
Review: Jim Harrison is without doubt my favorite contemporary writer (followed very closely by Tom McGuane). Words and paper were invented for Jim Harrison's genius to be shared by the rest of us. THE ROAD HOME is so significant and well written I found myself unable to read more than four or five pages before I had to put the book aside just to let the words sink in. Harrison's gift of word usage and image creation puts most other contemporary writers far behind. Read THE ROAD HOME!

Rating:
Summary: Best Book, Favorite Author
Review: Jim Harrison is without doubt my favorite contemporary writer (followed very closely by Tom McGuane). Words and paper were invented for Jim Harrison's genius to be shared by the rest of us. THE ROAD HOME is so significant and well written I found myself unable to read more than four or five pages before I had to put the book aside just to let the words sink in. Harrison's gift of word usage and image creation puts most other contemporary writers far behind. Read THE ROAD HOME!

Rating:
Summary: Return home
Review: Just a heck of a good book especially the first novella

Rating:
Summary: Like Baseball
Review: periods of extreme boredom followed closely by seconds of absolute panic. Truly, Harrison is a master and this book is probably his best.... however...you must be willing to pay the price. Depth of thought is un-rivaled in some cases...depth of tedium as well.

Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary
Review: The intimacy of the human experience provided in this book is to be savored.

Rating:
Summary: The Road less Traveled
Review: There is no writer in the world that can write like Harrison. Look, I have read every book by Faulkner, Hemingway, Larry Brown, Rick Bass, and Cormac McCarthy; some three times.And not one story has the poetry, humanity, sex, Spirituality,and reality ,mixed with humor and philosophy of Jim Harrison at his best. I know this is saying a great deal. But the thing is, I've got to tell it like it is. Of course many will disagree. Read this story, "The Road Home", then read "Dalva", then read "The Road Home" again. The read "Light in August" and "Joe, "Winter", and "The Crossing". And then read "A Woman Lit By Fireflies". Then you write a review.

Enjoy.