Customer Reviews

The Farmer's Daughter

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is one of Jim Harrison's most satisfying books in many years. If you intend to read it, you might want to avoid all reviews and comments and simply read it fresh. If you need more incentive to read it, then read on.

The title, THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER, resonating with the many cliched variations of the joke, is a fine choice for the interplay of masculine/feminine in these three novellas, entirely different, yet linked by more than Patsy Cline's rendition of the Roger Miller song of alienation, "The Last Word In Lonesome Is Me."

The opening sentence of the first novella nails down the sense of alienation: "She was born peculiar, or so she thought." Her favorite idol is Montgomery Clift in "The Misfits." The first variation on the-farmer's-daughter is a coming of age story.

In the second novella, Harrison's everyman/Native American Brown Dog is the middle man, existentially and humorously muddling his way across, playing his part in creation but agnostic to the meaning of it all. When he hears "Who are we that God is mindful of us?" he turns the question around and says, "Who is God that we are mindful of Him?"

Harrison's symbols resonate on theme. Gretchen tells Brown Dog that they should go for three times at creation, "three, not two." She finds the creation act "bearable" but wants to stop at three. Brown Dog has "the absurd feeling of a reverse Christmas in May" and recalls the holiday line, "The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow." He flops down on a trash bag "to make a snow angel."

The third roughly 100-page-novella in here is the more spiritual, a vampire story of altered consciousness, alienated but advancing toward love, at last remarking how wonderful it is to finally make love with someone you actually love.

The first novella opens with a line of alienation. The closing of the third novella ends with the protagonist recognizing the interconnectedness of living things, the ME of LonesoME diminishing in the evolution of the self toward empathy, a recurring point in Jim Harrison's Buddhism/naturalism worldview.

There is an epilogue to the third novella in which the protagonist encounters a dead bear and says "at least for a moment I felt as if we were cousins."

Jim Harrison's humor in here is a hoot. Somehow, I have to fit this onto my list of the top five best books of the year.

I've read all of Harrison and the man's a genius. The East coast literati have continually overlooked him and he doesn't give a damn. Love it. I didn't believe Dalva could be topped and then along came Returning to Earth...it could be the perfect novel.

The English Major was o.k., but a little disappointing. I had high hopes that big Jim would be back in rhythm for The Farmer's Daughter, especially with the hint of another Brown Dog story. Please hear me, I've underlined plenty of words and phrases the likes that only Harrison can conceive, but I believe this one fell short. As another reviewer hinted, Legends set the bar for me on novellas and this one just came under the bar. As Jim as written, life is like that sometimes. I'll still buy the next Harrison, even if its full of empty pages we're supposed to draw bears and women and rattlesnakes on.

His poetry lately is excellent...maybe that's where he's finding grace in these later years, with his first love - poetry.

Superior writing and dramatic narrative with strains of empathy and subtle humor rarely seen in modern fiction. This author writes with confidence and gravitas. A real contribution that should please a wide range of readers--from the mainstream to those looking for something a bit different. Highly recommended. I was so impressed that I plan to look into some of Harrison's earlier work.

Jim Harrison's works have always been among my favorites. Legends of the Fall is a novella that stands with Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Dalva one of the finest novels I have ever read. His poetry is masterful, muscular, spiritual, naturalistic. He is an American treasure, one of our most revered authors. In his books people actually breathe fresh air. They hunt, ride horses, camp, fly-fish, hike, living an active life. These are the books for the drawing rooms or the halls of academia. Harrison's characters have lives.

The Farmer's Daughter is a disappointing effort. Perhaps Harrison has mined his rich vein too often. The same bowl of menudo and Patsy Cline's "The Last Word in Lonesome is Me" find their way into each of the three novellas. The novella that gives the collection its title covers well-trodden Harrison themes. As in many of his books and novellas a piece of property is inherited by the protagonist, giving a sense of freedom and isolation. The second novella features Brown Dog, Harrison's Native-American alter-ego, a libidinous ne'er-do-well attempting to rescue his profoundly damaged daughter from the clutches of the state bureaucracy. The third novella, the best in this weak collection, returns to another of Harrison's trusty themes, werewolves. (In his memoir Harrison confesses that one night he's convinced he himself turned into a wolf! He also mentions in the introduction to that memoir that memory is a funny thing and he couldn't vouch for even his own veracity.)

Don't let this be your first introduction to Jim Harrison. Nearly everything else he has written is better.

I gave it a try. I guess it is proof that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I know lots of people rave about his writing but I found the stripped down style so very dull. Not dry so much as parched. I am glad that there is room for a variety of writing styles in this world, but we don't have to like them all.

I went into this book fully expecting to like the werewolf story best and it actually ended up my least favorite. The title story and "Brown Dog Redux" I felt were far superior but perhaps I am a prude for finding descriptive sex between a twelve-year-old boy and a grown woman disturbing and repugnant.

The inside flap of the book jacket describes "The Farmer's Daughter" as tragic and "Brown Dog Redux" as more humurous. While there is a lot of tragedy in the title story, I also found a great deal of humor which caused me to laugh out loud - such as Sarah's obsession with revenge on a rapist. Her reasoning and actions concerning this nasty event (rape) had me cheering her on in her mission to off the perpetrator and the planning that went into it was indeed funny to me at times. No, the rape is not funny of course, but Harrison's depiction of her thoughts and actions were at times very funny.

Brown Dog's story I found to be incredibly tragic and I found little humor in this story of a half-breed losing his little girl because the county deems him unfit to raise her due to her fetal alcohol syndrome and his propensity for trying to have sex with nearly every woman he sees. I found this story particularly poignant, especially B.D.'s obvious love of the lakes and woods of his native Michigan. Harrison is a master at describing nature.

As I said the third story didn't do anything for me though it was well-written. I can just only take so much of a kid having brutal sex with grown women.

Harrison is a favorite writer of mine. I view most of his tales as men's stories, which doesn't detract from them for me, but maybe the werewolf ought to retire...

One senses that even the Coyotes crowd around the bookstores waiting to get a taste of his salty greatness. Fawning no doubt will be heavy on the sauce, it's nothing personal, just good writing is awl.

How can such fun in reading be possible? One asks the stars as they lean in to watch the scene unfold. There is a feeling that Brown Dog Redux should have come before The Farmer's Daughter, if only for the fact that B.D. made his entrance in The Summer He Didn't Die (one of the best short stories ever written btw), and I suppose I had high hopes for B.D.'s grand beginning, the other thing is that while B.D. is loved, that is the weaker story (if only for the fact that The Summer He Didn't Die is so strong and impecable) and The Farmer's Daughter is the Grandstand while the later The Games of Night rounds out a stunning winning finish. Note: The Games of Night does contain some squeamish animal scenes, I chose to look away. And there are some other scenes that turned me pink and I felt as if I wanted to slap Mr. Harrison lightly on the hand and say, "Why you old cur!" - - Just an old dog feeling his oats in writing and more than getting away with it.

One gets a fluid sense of always being on the go with this collection. No character stops anywhere for long, almost like a wandering travelogue. There is something about Mr. Harrison's quick pace, that the reader can happily jog along through tumbleweeds in Texas, then all the way up the map to Montana in just the blink of a day; then suddenly over to Spain and back to Texas; I personally love this narrative style, it transports me to places I cannot go. Also, one will not go hungry for lack of culture; famous artists such as Modigliani and Fernando Pessoa quotes jump right into the party; rounding the corner one can feel the hot breath of Salvador Dali as he takes in these wild scenes. All three stories are like a special jolt of habanero sauce to the senses; each one is unique. B.D. who is perpetually on the wrong side of everything, and Gretchen with her big heart to come and help him along. He isn't a bad spirit, rather the opposite, just not too bright in matters of making money, and his favorite pasttime is fishing and spending time in the woods; at times his obsession with the female anatomy gets a bit trying, but this is his character and one can almost laugh at his lightheartedness; this is a certain mask over the great despair of his life and I would rather laugh than grow despondant. He weathers the storm of leaving Berry better than I thought he would. I am hoping for a Berry story somewhere down the road, with her gull cries and Indian Dancing.

The Farmer's Daughter begins parries and ends with the panache of a rodeo queen besting the toughest cowboys. It just simply is good writing. There is a feeling that when Mr. Harrison casts his net, even the fog lifts; that the heavy sleepers rise from their depths to taste the line; crows gather round asking whether to pray for the body, bury the body, or simply disassemble the body; a hand goes up in the air, in the midst of a girl losing her beloved Tim, a flock of Eagles are staved mid-cry; as if the rattlesnakes know the sound of his footfall in loose gravel and bust a move; as if his words have the power to turn back a sea of homesick armies berthing them home to yellow ribbons thirsty hearts and tired eyes; this writing is so fluid, as of a canonical boat ride through marshes that have yet to wake; other places, funny and sun burnt sections whipping around like a Catahoula jumping from a flatbed truck in hot pursuit of wild game; as if he simply flops down in a sandy playground, just as B.D. is saying goodbye to Berry; a master playing with a child once more; as of a Buddha watching over his beloved. The all inclusive dogma that Harrison weaves so well falls like a veil of contentment over the land with the very last scene. Weep the good weep. Smiles all around. A short yet satisfying glimpse at the Two Hearted River will have Hemingway fans eyes blinking in wild delight ~ Nothing short of grand.

I read this with the excitement of a Harrison fan cracking open a new work. I was disappointed and felt like he was going through the motions, satisfying some publisher's contract.

Harrison's novella, The Games of Night, is an exceptionally great story, and take, on the werewolf. A beautiful interpretation of "the other."

Well, this book has just left me at kind of a loss for words. I've been reading Harrison for 40 years now, and I know he's had his highs and lows, but this may be a new low. Maybe I should first admit that I only read the first novella, the title piece. And I had to force myself to finish it, because it just seemed a bit too far-fetched, if not a bit moronic, in the way the story was presented as kinda from the viewpoint of a 15-16 year-old girl, transplanted from Ohio to Montana. But the girl herself was simply not very believable - either too sexually precocious or too innocent, mostly the latter, I'd say. Waaay too intellectual for a kid that age, supposedly reading stuff like Tristram Shandy and The Red and the Black. Maybe, but not very likely. Attracted to much older men. I mean, for me, this Sarah was simply the fictitious invention of a dirty old man. And the ending? Blecch! I just don't think so. This was basically a hundred-page adult comic book sans pictures - sans 'art' for that matter. By the time I'd finished, I simply didn't want to read any more of the book, especially that last story about a "retired vampire." Geeze, Jim. What were you thinking? This book is such an embarrassment. I wonder if you were curious just what you could get away with and still get critical acclaim. Well, just about anything, it seems, as Publisher's Weekly's starred review said "Harrison shows he is still at the top of his game ..." I wonder what book they were reading. Maybe I'll just re-read one of Harrison's all-time best books, FARMER. No daughter in that one, although the teacher-farmer protagonist did have a fling with a very precocious teenager. Hmmm ... Maybe Jim's still writing the same story and it's just me that's changed. - Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER