Customer Reviews

The Beast God Forgot to Invent: Novellas

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Jim Harrison exhausts me. In two of his three superb novellas, I had to pause after every other paragraph to allow my mind to catch up. Reading Harrison is like drinking from a fire hose. Harrison's writing has the conceptual connectivity of a Dennis Miller rant, but it is more serious, more profound, longer and always within an odd story line. Does anyone else write like this? Harrison defines the solitary, cranky, intelligent, old man. Thank goodness for another Brown Dog story sandwiched neatly in between for relief. One imagines the Farley Brothers could make quite a movie about old B.D.

I read the first sentence of the title novella five or ten times before I could go on. (I won't tell you what it is... get the book and read it yourself.) Then I read it to my brother-in-law, my wife and a potter friend. I memorized it and now feel strongly compelled to scratch it on subway wall. It's that good. There are many such profound sentences throughout these three simply plotted but canyon-deep novellas. Witty and thoughful sentences and paragraphs abound yielding fuel for prolonged sessions of enjoyment and pondering. Thank you, Jim Harrison!

I have just found a new obsession and it's Jim Harrison! Not the man, but his books of course. I am always open to a new discovery and in this case, what a pleasant surprise. Jim Harrison has an impressive command of words that keep his story(s), in this case 3 of them, flowing without being bogged down with excessive descriptions. It's as if you were having a conversation with him rather than reading a book.

After doing some research I found that he had written "Legends of the Fall", and that is one of my all time favorite movies. I just can't understand why he doesn't get more press. I have mentioned his books to several people and none of them were aware of him at all. He difinitely is a talent not to be missed. I have already ordered "A Woman Lit by Fireflies" and looking forward to his upcoming Memoir!

One more thing,if you are not familiar with his writing take a peak inside one of his books, you might just like what you see.

'Catering to egregious pricks out of childhood nostalgia is a poor way to conduct your life' says the narrator of the first of the three novellas is this book. A poor way indeed and the theme of this and the third story is the absolute foolishness of catering at all.
These two novellas are beautifully written in the straightforward Harrison style-you could imagine yourself hearing these tales told at a bar in the woods somewhere.
Westward Ho! the middle story is one of the sloppiest, most annoying things that I've ever read from this guy. It seems rushed and thoughtless and almost made me put the book down. But in his carelessness, Harrison has come up with another facet of his genius: this is a genuinely funny story, risible on a couple of different levels. If you can imagine Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld and the cable guy getting together to write an episode of Home Improvement, you'll have the sense of it.

So read the first and last story for good lit and the middle for a good laugh.

Lynn Hoffman, author or bang BANG

this is the first harrison book i've read and did not know what to expect. i enjoyed it a lot. whereas some reviewers have compared him to hemingway, i seem him more as a stylistic descendent of henry miller and bukowski.
harrison certainly mines the same "male" terrain as hemingway, but whereas hemmingway is about "men of action" in war and other pursuits, harrison's central characters in 2 of the 3 novellas here are more observers than doers. They also have more of a cerebral/academic lens on the world than hemmingway's men.
where robert stone -- another writer in the male thinker/adventurer vein -- tends to follow a very structured approach to plot (more like conrad or hemmingway) -- these novellas are more like diary entries. they are *not* plot-driven and occasionally i found myself losing interest.
but what i found most appealing here was less the plot and more the great insights sprinkled throughout -- sentences that you underline and read three times. worth reading.

And here's why: many authors write in the first person to give themselves an alter ego. Not so here, as Harrison uses the first person to give us 3 truly engaging partners in crime, who let us in on the most intimate details of their lives. His genius is that, although he brings the disparate together, he also understands their inevitable separation.

These stories begin in Minnesota. They always come back there.

Worth your time, if only to meet people who should go on and reoprt back "beyond the end"....

It has been a while since I've read anything by Jim Harrison, and after reading this book, I can't quite remember why it's been so long. Harrison is an amazing wordsmith, and his stories are very engaging, in a hedonistic, manly kind of way. The Beast God Forgot to Invent is a compilation of three novellas, each about different men at interesting points in their lives.The title novella is about a retired book dealer who is charged with the task of describing the last days of his brain-damaged, womanizing friend, Joe, to the coroner...This book has definitely inspired me to continue reading Jim Harrison's works. I encourage you to pick this book up. It's an enjoyable read, interspersed with profound truth.

In the title story the narrator, a fifty-something antique book collecter and real estate agent, feels chagrined living in the north Michigan wilderness where he lives a paradoxical life of ruggedness tempered by his dependence on consumerism, creature comforts and gadgetry. Divorced twice, the lonely narrator lusts over young women who flock Joe, a feral young man, who, sustaining a brain injury, takes on the role of the town's "Noble Savage." The novella's comedy and deep, soulful pain comes from the sexually-frustrated, overintellectual narrator idealizing Joe into something akin to a hypersexualized Pan. It's clear that the narrator lives vicariously through what he perceives as Joe's unlimited sexual prowess.

The novella is well-paced and combines a compelling narrative with a meditation on the conflict between our impulse to live the simple, "real" life resembling our animal nature and our impulse to indulge in our "sophisticated" passions, which too often make us forget who we really are.

If you like reading Harrison, you can't leave this one out. I think it's his best. Memorable characters that still bring a smile long after I put the book (Kindle) down.

I'm a painter not a writer so I will not be able to do justice to Jim Harrison. In my mind Harrison is our best living writer. It is an exciting, humanizing and exceptional experience to read his work and this book is no exception. I have read all of Harrison's books and my respect for him has never flagged. His characters are driven by lascivious and intellectual curiousity - you're never sure you are reading the book or thinking the book.