The Summer He Didn't Die

By Jim Harrison

Book Overview

Jim Harrison's vivid, tender, and deeply felt fictions have won him acclaim as an American master of the novella. His latest highly acclaimed volume of novellas, The Summer He Didn't Die, is a sparkling and exuberant collection about love, the senses, and family, no matter how untraditional. In the title novella, "The Summer He Didn't Die," Brown Dog, a hapless Michigan Indian, is trying to parent his two stepchildren and take care of his family's health on meager resources -- it helps a bit that his charms are irresistible to the new dentist in town. "Republican Wives" is a wicked satire on the sexual neuroses of the right, the emptiness of a life lived for the status quo, and the irrational power of love that, when thwarted, can turn so easily into an urge to murder. And "Tracking" is a meditation on Harrison's fascination with place, telling his own familiar mythology through the places his life has seen and the intellectual loves he has known.

With wit as sharp and prose as lush as any Harrison has yet written, The Summer He Didn't Die is a resonant, warm, and joyful ode to our journey on this earth.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802142559
• ISBN13: 9780802142559
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Republican Wives--symphonic comedy is pitch perfect

I just bought this book and I try to savor Jim Harrison as much as possible. So, I'm saving Tracking and Brown dog does not disappoint. Have just stepped into Harrisons standard fall backs, and its a bit like entering an enchanted forest. Moreso, Harrisons blend of enchantment that is right up my alley. And a Jim Harrison fall back narrative belongs only to him. No one does his nature and spiritual writing better. Reading Harrison at times is like going to church. The kind God might wish to go to as well. Not much has been said of Republican Wives and I can say that of the filthy rich Republican women I know this was spot on. My gut ached. The story of the girls and their linkage with Darryl was like a Monty Python episode brought to Chicago. I know people like him! These women, all I can say is that I ballyhooed and slapped my knee through the whole thing. And I look up at the heavens and truly wonder how does Harrison know people so well. This one is not to be missed.

HARRISON ALWAYS WELCOME ON THE SAGGING SHELF!

Rec'v'd this book yesterday & am 50 pages into the story. It's going to be a wonderful book. Your good price & fast delivery is, as always, most appreciated. Jim Harrison just gets better & better. Nice to revisit some of his characters again...

Re/A.J. Richardson's Review

It's essential to note that anyone who codifies the "postmodern literary aesthetic" by complaining of its "woeful misuse" has written a priggishly self-impugning critique. I suspect that Sorrentino himself authored Richardson's review.

King of the novella

The novella is not the most commonplace of literary forms anymore, though it used to be much more popular. Credit Jim Harrison with preservation of this endangered species. Of the three samples here, two are among Harrison's wittiest, and one among his most eloquent. A story featuring yet another episode involving Brown Dog is always welcome, and in the title tale here, it seems "BD" is actually trying to grow up and do the right thing -- not that he ever really lacked an ethical sense; he just had trouble obeying the law. In this yarn, rightness and legality prove to be two different things, presenting Brown Dog with a choice that would involve personal sacrifice. "Republican Wives" is fun, too, and "Tracking" is the kind of piece that proves, again, that for all Harrison's literary carousing, he is a writer with serious things on his mind. By the way, to the author of the one-star review posted here: You are showing your political panties to the world. That's your choice, but my choice is to read fiction based on its ability to render life vividly, and not based on whether it lines up with my politics. And even if one does insist on considering Harrison's politics, it would certainly serve the interest of fairness to point out that the man has expressed plenty of contempt over the years for overly zealous environmentalists.

Sidesplitting skewering of bad writing & bad writers!

A very funny, still timely look at the mind of a writer who is nowhere nearly as good as he hopes. He's a terrible writer, and is struggling desperately to avoid having to face it, but he's no better than the hacks and idiots he spews venom at. (The parody of erotic poetry alone is gaspingly funny and well worth the price of admission all by itself.) The book also touches on the old adage that a writer's only as good as his last book, and adds a sensible new dimension to it: that a book is only as good as its last writer. Not an easy read, and sometimes redundant, but still a scream.