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The English Major (2008)

by Jim Harrison(Favorite Author)

3.53 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0802118631 (ISBN13: 9780802118639)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Grove Press

review 1: The English Major, by Jim Harrison, Narrated by Mark Bramhall, Produced by Blackstone Audio, downloaded from audible.com.Publishe’rs note says it as well as I can:"It used to be Cliff and Vivian and now it isn't."With these words, Jim Harrison begins a riotous, moving novel that sends a 60-something man on a questof self-rediscovery.Newly divorced and robbed of his farm by his real-estate shark of an ex-wife, Cliff is off on a road trip across America, on a missionto rename all the states and state birds and redeem them from the banal names men have given them.Cliff's adventures take him through a whirlwind affairwith a former student from his high-school teaching days 20-some years before, to a snake farm in Arizona owned by an old classmate, and into the high-octaneexi... morestence of his son, a big-time movie producer. A map of a man's journey into - and out of - himself, The English Major is vintage Harrison: reflective,big-picture American, and replete with wicked wit.
review 2: I was turned on to Jim Harrison after casual browsing led me to a collection of his novellas, "The Farmer’s Daughter." The title story has as its focus an intelligent young girl coming of age on a farm in rural Montana and is one of the best things I have read, on any subject."The English Major" is essentially a road trip chronicle. At the wheel is Cliff, age sixty and recently single having been divorced by Viv after thirty years of marriage. Cliff taught high school English for ten years before devoting himself full-time to farming. Viv was a farm wife prior to discovering her true calling, which was to make a ton of money in real estate.Setting off from his home state of Michigan, Cliff’s ostensible destination is San Francisco to visit he and Viv’s only child, Robert, an all around terrific person with a successful career in the movie industry. Along the way Cliff intentionally and unintentionally meets various interesting people, including a former student. Many of his characters have benefited from educational experiences that have enriched their connections to the land and deepened their perceptions of the world.Cliff opens up about his feelings concerning his marriage and its dissolve; about trout fishing; and quite a bit about birds, farming, tending livestock, and wandering in the woods. He ruminates on literature, favorite recipes, and the larger issues of the day. And he is very funny. Mr. Harrison has written many works of fiction, several works of non-fiction and poetry, and is the winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is most widely known for his novella "Legends of the Fall," upon which the beautiful movie starring Brad Pitt is based. less

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