Name dropping
Posted: March 31, 2011 Filed under: books, fiction, people, writing 2 Comments
Check out page 295 of Jim Harrison’s newest novella collection, The Farmer’s Daughter, when you see a copy. He kindly slipped my name into one sentence in this force majeure book, particularly the first two novellas: The Farmer’s Daughter and Brown Dog Redux. There’s simply no writer like Jim Bear. He shares his buddy Thomas McGuane’s luminous language plus an always beating, warm heart, making for characters that are the closest you’ll ever get to pulsing human blood on the printed page. Plus funny, out loud laughing.
Congrats on being name-dropped, Prof. Hamric!
That said, I must confess that this collection did leave me a bit conflicted, particularly the title ‘track.’ Something about an old man writing about a 15/16 year old girl falling in love with a 35 year old man brings me up short.
Harvey,
Think again, my friend. Maybe you should see the heroine as a 15-year-old fictional creation (Montana version) of Dalva, the mature woman in his masterpiece trilogy. As for an older man and a younger woman, it’s in the genes from the most ancient past. It’s the human way. What you’re reacting to is on the surface, perhaps––society’s take––and that take is too often fleeting and based on so many wrong-headed power attitudes, prejudices, etc., that you have to shake your head to get rid of them. However, you’re the first person I’ve actually met who has read the book, and I congratulate you on that. Read Jim Harrison’s poetry too, if you haven’t. It’s great medicine for the spirit. Best, amigo,
Roy