The Woman Lit By Fireflies

By Jim Harrison

Book Overview

Jim Harrison has garnered critical acclaim for masterpieces such as Legends of the Fall, The Beast God Forgot to Invent , and, most recently, Returning to Earth . Now, The Woman Lit by Fireflies , one of his best-loved books, is available as a Grove paperback. Across the odd contours of the American landscape, people are searching for the things that aren't irretrievably lost, for the incandescent beneath the ordinary. An ex-Bible student with raucously asocial tendencies rescues the preserved body of an Indian chief from the frigid depths of Lake Superior in a caper that nets a wildly unexpected bounty. A band of sixties radicals, now approaching middle age, reunite to free an old comrade from a Mexican jail. A fifty-year-old suburban housewife flees quietly from her abusive businessman husband at a highway rest stop, climbs a fence, and explores the bittersweet pageant of the preceding years within the sanctuary of an Iowa cornfield. The Woman Lit by Fireflies is the work of a classic writer at the very top of his form--a hard-living, hard-writing hero of American letters whose novellas comprise a sweeping tribute to the nation's heartland and the colorful, courageous characters who inhabit it.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080214375X
• ISBN13: 9780802143754
• Release Date: October 2008
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Still great fifteen years later

i came on my copy of this book a few days ago. i was unpacking after a move and there was a lot to do. i had fond memories so i started reading. two hours later i was still sitting on a box reading. the title story remains one of the most engaging stories written by a man about a woman.

Brown Dog is a Hero for Our Time

I was first introduced to Jim Harrison when I took an Intro to Fiction class taught by Harrison biographer/critic Edward Reilly. The book that I read was The Woman Lit by Fireflies. "Brown Dog" is, by far, my favorite novella in the collection. He is an underdog that simply wants to live off the land and be left the hell alone. Admirable qualities in my opinion. "Sunset Limited" and the "Woman Lit by Fireflies" are also excellent, but "Brown Dog" makes me hurt from laughter. Not the most insightful review, I'm sure. However, how can a person be critical about something he or she enjoys?

Audacious,Ballsy,Cynical,Exceptionally F*cking Good !!!!

HARRISON! HARRISON! HARRISON! Immortal I agree, this work is to me the same as sitting a spell to listen to the tales of the elders in town, to learn of the lives and times that you know nothing of, you couldn't know, without the memory of those who were there, or those who've heard the legends before. Descriptive, yes. Insightful, yes. Each character of the three novellas will hold a place inside of you long after the duration of the read. Clare will speak to your soul and carry you away on the wings of introspection. Sunset Limited will be like opening a photo album from years past and reminiscing the adventures and feelings of your bosom buddies. Brown Dog, the scoundrel, will take you on an exciting roller coaster ride of intuition, passion,wit and wiles to prove once and for all that the underdog will prevail!( hence his continuation in the Seven Ounce Man ) As an avid reader of non-fiction I am proud to say that I have restored my faith in the realm of fiction through the works of my fellow Michigander the honorable, the mighty, the great, mister Jim Harrison. Hello from Grand Marais!!!