Rating: 
Summary: Transcends the genre
Review: I've often heard that this is a superbly crafted novel, and it announces this from the very opening sentence, almost the way Gravity's Rainbow did with the infamous line, "A screaming comes across the sky." But unlike Pynchon, McLean is an author of deliberate economy and calculated brevity, which he knows how to put to good effect. As a result, McLean knows how to tell a good yarn, and this story ranks as one of the greatest of the many fine works inspired by fly-fishing.As for myself, I'm often willing to sacrifice craftsmanship for creativity, and an author who shows great originality or even brilliance but is perhaps a little rough around the edges formally or stylistically, is something I appreciate too. You can see this in certain composers. For example, Beethoven's transitions are sometimes a little rough, unlike Mendelsohn's or Schubert's, who, like McLean, often show great craftsmanship in the little as well as the big things. But most scholars would still consider Beethoven the greater of the three, although they're all certainly great composers, and Schubert had a truly spontaneous gift for coming up with melodies that even his great mentor, Beethoven, lacked, who often had to work very hard on his melodic material. But before I wander too far into the muddy Elysian fields of comparative aesthetics, McLean's book has rightly become a classic of northwestern writing, and many think it belongs in the Pantheon of great American literature, an elevated position the pragmatic and unpretentious Scottsman in McLean might have regarded with a somewhat jaundiced eye. But as a friend of mine perceptively remarked, unlike Barth's later books, whose literary merit rarely exceeds their pretentions, McLean's book transcends the fly-fishing genre, exceeding its modest aspirations to become a truly great work of American literature in its own right.
Rating: 
Summary: Review on A River Runs Through It
Review: This book is a great story on the lives of Norman and Paul Maclean. Norman and Paul grow up in a small town in Western Montana where they were raised by their father who was the town Presbyterian minister. They are taught the great art of fly-fishing and become great fishermen. Throughout their lives they deal with the struggles of life and the overcome the hardships that are presented before them.
Rating:
Summary: Warning: This book isn't really about fishing.
Review: A River Runs Through It is quite simply the single greatest book I have ever read. Maclean's language is as terse and economical as any in Hemingway, but Maclean imparts the type of true feeling and emotion into his simple words that Hemingway himself was incapable of producing. A River Runs Through It is not a story about fishing, but rather a tale of family. The family just happens to share a love of fishing, and Maclean's love of waters has more to do with its close association with his family than with the actual fishing that takes place there. It is the family's tragic loss of Paul, the true master fly-fisherman of the clan, that ties Maclean to waters and inspires the closing lines of the novella. A River Runs Through It delves into interpersonal relationships in a manner which grips the reader and makes him/her reflect on his/her own family. Although I am myself an avid fisherman, I am a more avid reader and I can say that for my part, the fishing element of the story is unimportant except for its association with Maclean's family. Maclean's prose is beautiful to point that his description of a common object or occurence could bring the reader to tears. A River Runs Through It is quite simply the most beautiful thing I have ever read. Period.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT PIECE
Review: WHAT A GREAT COLLECTION OF STORIES. THIS IS A MUST HAVE BOOK.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT PIECE
Review: THIS BOOK MAKES ONE WISH THEY COULD LEAVE REALITY AND SPEND THAT TIME CHASING A DREAM.
Rating:
Summary: The greatest
Review: I've read this book every year since 1981 and I get something new from it with every reading. I consider this book to be the greatest work ever produced by an American author. The heart-felt emotion, the love of the land, the love of family are expressed here like no where else in literature. The first 98 percent of the book sets up the last two pages that are pure poetry (don't skip ahead - you won't even understand the last two pages unless you read the rest first). What a shame that this student and teacher of our language waited until retirement before he started to publish. I absolutely love this book and love this man for giving it to us. It's not just the best book of its type, it's the best book of any type.
Rating:
Summary: Hauntingly Beautiful Sparse Prose
Review: I am haunted by this book. In its scant pages, essentially a long thematic short story, more mood than plot, it says everything that need be said about that one special person you loved but never really understood. And it says it with humor, kindness, humanity and a sorrow that transcends both time and place.
Rating:
Summary: Flows like a MT river
Review: Parents of an alum made me promise to read this. MacLean has a writing style that flows like the rivers he fished. His stories are very "real." The characters are quirky and rough-edged, just like we are. I definitely recommend this book.
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.
| 
