by Jim Harrison
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| List Price: | $14.00 |
| Average Rating: |  |
| Lowest New Price: | $8.81 |
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Product Description
In the universally-praised Returning to Earth, Jim Harrison has delivered a masterpiece—a tender, profound, and magnificent novel about life, death, and the possibility of finding redemption in unlikely places. Donald is a middle-aged Chippewa-Finnish man slowly dying of Lou Gehrig’s disease. His condition deteriorating, he realizes no one will be able to pass on to his children their family history once he is gone. He begins dictating to his wife, Cynthia, stories he has never shared with anyone—as around him, his family struggles to lay him to rest with the same dignity with which he has lived. Over the course of the year following Donald’s death, his daughter begins studying Chippewa ideas of death for clues about her father’s religion, while Cynthia, bereft of the family she created to escape the malevolent influence of her own father, finds that redeeming the past is not a lost cause. Returning to Earth is a deeply moving book about origins and endings, making sense of loss, and living with honor for the dead. It is among the finest novels of Harrison’s long, storied career, and confirms his standing as one of the most important American writers now working.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Can't believe this book got published ... and read, 2008-08-29
Thank goodness I got my book from the library and it didn't cost me any money. I got interested in reading the book because I discovered that Harrison and I went to rival high schools, at about the same time. It was nostalgic for me to read about towns and culture that very few others know of. My grandfather had lived and died in the copper mines he writes about in the "U.P.". And I had just finished reading a Faulkner book (Absalom, Absalom) but certainly do NOT compare Harrison to Faulkner, as stated in a review. And I've read Gabriel García Márquez books, in English and Spanish, and would NOT compare the two at all, as has someone else. Harrison just goes on and on (not worthy to be classified magical realism) until he finally ends and then sends it off as a book to get published and collects the money. I hope it doesn't become a movie too. Or perhaps it was an autobiography.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Very Disappointing!, 2008-07-09
I have to agree with the one and two star reviews. I had really hoped to love this novel given the reviews and the subject matter of a life examined, but the characters fell flat. I simply did not care about them or often found them unlikeable. Much of the story is inate ramblings about taking a walk, cooking dinner, having sex and it is all told in a "well whatever" fashion. I would not wast my time on this novel.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Didn't finish it..., 2008-04-27
...because the characters and their digressions didn't capture me. I stopped reading after 125 pages.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 bear with me while I die, 2008-02-28
This is the first novel I have read by this author. I thoroughly enjoyed it from the first to the last page. The narrative, in my opinion, was captivating and it was written well; it truly captured the consciousness of a dying man's thoughts. What I loved especially was the main character's narrative about his past, his culture and his ability to hold on to all of it in such a hectic world. His and other character's way of lives are in such contrast to the daily maze of madness 95% of us go through. At times during this novel, I almost wished I was one of the 5% who could have my days filled with walks in the woods and a general slowed down pace of life just enough to stop and see the bears or smell the roses.
I liked the other three main characters in the novel all equally as they each had a different perspective on what the main character's death did to them and how it affected the view they hold of the world.
At points, it was witty and made me laugh here and there because of the true nature of the tone and realistic sometimes blunt; though necessary for characterization, language.
Death isn't easy for anyone to deal with and most people can handle their own better than the one's they are close with, and in this novel I think Jim Harrison hits that aspect out of the park.
Could there have been more in depth discussion about Donald's culture or the history of his family? Maybe. But, in the end I really enjoyed the narrative and already miss the characters. They were all individuals but closely tied to one another with the common thread of having had Donald, the main character, as a part of their lives.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Vintage Harrison, 2008-01-06
Jim Harrison is, quite simply, American's finest contemporary author. Few writers can craft a sequel that stands alone as a fine work of literature, but for Harrison it's a regular exercise. Harrison's characters are so well developed and completely compelling in their humanity, and the quality of his prose and the inventiveness he employs is remarkable. Harrison proves that we are a nation of interesting mortals whose lives are worthy of review and reflection and not fantastic superheroes doing the ridiculously impossible. At some point in the future historians and others interested in late 20th century Americana will turn to Harrison in general and "Returning to Earth" in particular to see how it really was. Excellent read.
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