Customer Reviews

The English Major

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

With Jim Harrison, you always know that you'll be reading something that is well off the beaten track, so to speak. He writes for himself, not to please a segment of the population. With most of his work, you feel that you're getting deep within a person's soul. The English Major is a bit more "escapist" than some of his deeper and darker (in the sense of unsettling, not supernatural, although there may be a surreal feel) novels. The story is about a man recently in his 60's whose wife of almost 40 years has booted him out for another man. Cliff leaves his farm in Michigan on an Odyssey (using caps seems appropriate) across many of the western US states. He takes with him an old jigsaw puzzle, and as he leaves each state he "sacrifices" that piece of the puzzle.

Cliff's journey takes him to Wisconsin, Minnestota, and eventually into Montana. On this early part of the trip he is joined by a former student Marybelle, who will be dropped off at her husband's digging site in Montana. Marybelle is a cell-phone addict to an extent that rivals Cliff's ex-wife's appetite for junk food. Cliff wants open spaces, Marybelle wants nearby cell phone towers. Harrison's great strength lies in the depth of his characterizations. You seem to always get a good understanding and appreciation of everyone--evn the waitresses in the small cafes along the way. There are wonderful descriptions of Cliff's mixed reactions to Marybelle--the sex, the incessant cellphone chatter, whether it is better to have companionship or quiet solitary communions with nature (Cliff also enjoys fishing).

Cliff's son lives in San Francisco, and always has more advice for him than Cliff wants, the ex-wife wants to see him as well, and, of course, Marybelle and her cell phone intrudes. Harrison's novels are mostly about change, about introspection, about discovering yourself. You may well find youself thinking about Homer's Odyssey: are there parallels? deliberate parallels? or is this totally irrelevant? It's a strange voyage, full of character and characters, and a very engaging story.

I tried hard to like this book, and I succeeded, at least partly. The title was an instant grabber since I too was an English major, forty years ago. Harrison (who was once, incidentally, like me, a Reed City Boy) has told interviewers that the book's title was spawned by the oft-asked question from his practical-minded and sometimes dim northern Michigan friends and relatives: "Why wouldja major in English when ya already know English?" Point taken, I suppose. The truth is that most English majors were/are people who love books and reading. But then those same people often end up as teachers; and some of them, like me, find out they don't really like teaching, just books. Anyway, ol' Cliff, the book's 60 yr-old protagonist, taught high school English for 10 yrs, then went back to farming, another job he didn't really like all that much, but got kinda used to over a 25 yr period. When his wife of nearly 40 yrs leaves him, his dog dies and he loses his farm, all practically at the same time, he is forced to re-examine his life and try to make a new one. So he goes on the road, fancying himself a kind of codger-Kerouac, perhaps. As is true in almost all of Harrison's books, women fling themselves at him and have their way with his tired ol' body, which begins to very much feel its age after too much vigorous sex. He seems to find more pleasure in frequent naps and food than he does in these adventures in the sack though. In point of fact, his descriptions of his meals, taken in various diners, bars and seedy restaurants, or self-prepared, as he travels west across the country from Michigan to California, and back to Montana, become rather tiresome, as do his frequent digressions on life and sex and just about everything else. The plot, if there indeed is one, is pretty thin. Having said all this however, I have to admit that I often found myself chuckling or even laughing out loud as I empathized with Cliff's revisionist ruminations on growing older and suffering the humiliations and pains of diminishing strenghth and waning sexual energy. His self-deprecating humor as he variously characterizes himself as a geezer, a codger, or an old Studebaker standing in the weeds, is quite contagious and I found myself rooting for the pore ol' fart. So the ending - which isn't exactly a "happily-ever-after" one, but wasn't really too awful either - seemed appropriate. And I'm pretty sure Cliff is correct about his future. He'll "do fine." - Tim Bazzett, author of the Reed City Boy trilogy

This novel concerns the transition of a 60-year-old man from one chapter of life to another using the device of a road trip. Cliff addresses his life, but not always successfully. Harrison is a fine writer, but at times I felt he almost phoned in some of his observations. There is really not much soul searching during this aborted voyage of discovery. Many times the protagonist snapping pictures, usually of cows, and applying quotes from his past as an English teacher. It is not certain why he gave up that profession to become a farmer, and the characters are somewhat 2 dimensional except for his beloved late dog, Lola. His project, that of renaming all the states and their state birds, seems more of a device than a calling. There are some lovely passages hinting at the talent of this fine writer, but this is not one of his better efforts.

This book was barely passable for me. I'm an old fan of Jim Harrison, although I fell off at "Dalva" after enjoying the hell out of books like "Farmer," "Sun Dog," and "Legends of the Fall". "The English Major" starts off with promise. I liked the 50 states theme and started getting into his rhythm, but the style of the book is to constantly look backwards and also to give meandering thoughts about life. It took away the forward momentum. And I honestly just got tired of Harrison's manly-literary style. The narrator became Harrison and it all just got stale. The AD (Alcoholic Doctor) character and state puzzle pieces and names became crutch literary devices. Harrison plays with the concept of artist with a project of renaming the US states and birds, calling it art, and it seems he's making a statement about art, but it doesn't have much interest in the end.

Jim Harrison remains one of my all-time favorite writers. He still can put together some funny stuff and is fearless in writing about how men are put together. But honestly I had to trudge to get to the end of this book.

"The English Major" skips along at a breezy pace, yet it's also weighty and rich. The writing is magic. The narrative from main character Cliff is a joke-a-paragraph journey into one man's crazy-eyed view of the world and it's also about real love and real passions (plural). It's about writing and technology and food and other hungers, most of them sexual. It's about birds and bird watching of all kinds. A main theme is being disconnected with emerging technology.

"Maybe our world had out-devised itself and only a few superior people could keep up with the world's speed," Cliff observes while he's in Oregon. "Everything in our culture seems to be marinating in the same plastic sack and the ingredients are deeply suspect," he ponders while in California. "I couldn't get rid of the idea that nature had had too much effect on my abilities to pan out in this world. I was old baloney bull who favored the far corner of the pasture where it merged into the forty-acre woodlot. A baloney bull is one that has outaged its effectiveness. You cart it into the slaughterhouse where it's turned into low-rent cold cuts," he ponders in "California V."

The states fly by and Cliff wrestles with cell phones and GPS technology and fights it all. He's feisty, irascible and deeply in love with so many things, beginning with writing and his own sexual needs. He observes bartenders and waitresses and chronicles his intake of food.

"The English Major" is the story of a more thoughtful and grown up "B.D." from "The Brown Dog," one of Harrison's best short stories. Cliff has the same swagger, the same interest in women. Cliff has a keen eye, a busy and conflicted heart and a passion for back roads and real food. As his gay son (a terrific character too) puts it: "Dad, you are on a great adventure and have been liberated to a new life." It's definitely worth going for the ride.

Most books I've read that deal with the topic of late life exploration tend to be somber, repenting and annoyingly preachy. Not so the English major. Reading this book was like being surprised with a cold fluffy mousse when I was expecting a hot chocolate cake. The narrative flows pretty easily and is not encumbered by unnecessary characters or plot twists. I quite enjoyed this book over the Holiday break. At the start I felt a little bit lost by the absence of commas that made me reread sentences, but I got used to the style soon enough.
If you want a book about deep self exploration you will be disappointed. In essence Cliff finds out that the things he enjoyed before the trip are the things he really enjoys in the end and the rest is just the setting - no big deal. The English Major comes at a good time when the financial crisis has renewed the general appreciation for life's simple pleasures.

Jim Harrison's Legends of the Fall is one of my favorite reads and so I was curious to see how he would approach a more personal subject, in this case his own aging process. I was not disappointed. He tackles the subject by exploding the droll existence of his main character, 60-year-old Cliff, forcing him to move beyond his comfort zone which in this case means literally away from the strident wife who kicks him out of his farm and then out of Northern Michigan and into a Homeric journey of self-discovery. Harrison does this with marvelous humor, always poking fun at himself (Cliff) and at the social conventions that make up the world Cliff inhabits, i.e, the USA. Nothing is sacred here, including marriage, women, religion, diet, medicine, sexuality, substance abuse, minorities, and on and on as Cliff drives his dumpy car, an old geezer like himself, from state to state in his quest for a sense of identity. Cliff's parochial life as a farmer in a part of Michigan that seems more 1948 than 2008 allows him to react with naive disgust at the way people live in the real world of cities and traffic jams and sexual confusion and upward striving. Harrison is a master at describing the everyday routine of his characters in a way that fascinates. I particularly enjoyed Cliff's intimate relationships with animals -- his dog, an old pig, cows, fish, snakes, and a variety of birds. The critters seem more human than most of the people Cliff meets. Ultimately he winds up right back where he started as he learns to appreciate the importance of honoring his own likes (the simple life of a farmer) and dislikes (the complexities of modern life) and to hell with the rest of the world, including his ex-wife, his gay son, and a neurotic younger lover. This is a joy for the reader who is lucky enough to tag along for the ride.

I have read several Harrison novels previously. Although none were outstanding, they were interesting enough to lead me to buy this book and then again, against my better judgment, to actually finish it. I did so thinking, surely there will be something here, if I just persevere. Surely the story will go somewhere or there will be some worthwhile insight into life or character. Well, I was sadly wrong. Contemporary fiction is full of well written, insightful novels about man aging and confronting the growing realization of mortality and the loss of vitality and energy. This book is certainly not one of them.

This novel is a road trip story that truly "goes nowhere," just repeats itself over and over. And what is repeated is hardly interesting or worth the energy or time of the reader. I can't tell whether this supposed 60 year old has the mind of a eight or sixteen year old. Maybe it is somewhere in between. To the extent that the sexual banter-musings-dialogue is humorous it looses even its virtue as humor very quickly.

From prior readings, I know this author can write a good story, one that has rounded characters, develops in a meaningful way, and provides some substance or insight. Here, I have no clue what he thought he was doing, other than wasting the reader's time.

The English Major was actually the first Jim Harrison book I read and I continue to recommend it to folks who are both looking for a good read as well as trying to introduce themselves to his writing. This book focuses on a guy named Cliff, a retired teacher, who decides to drop everything and go on a car trip from coast to coast all the while throwing the puzzle pieces of visited states out the window. Along the way he meets a host of characters including Marybelle who follows him along most of the trip including on a visit to his estranged son in San Francisco. Well written and engaging novel.

What more can be said about Jim Harrison! I've read a lot of his writings and loved them for what they are. Homespun, good sense,insights that you wish you had thought of yourself. But this book was a disappointment in some ways. His take on old adventurers are right on, but his preoccupation with young women and sex seems to overshadow the other things he has to say. Or maybe I don't understand old men!