Julip: A Novel [Paperback]

Jim Harrison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2008

In three novellas, Jim Harrison takes us on an American journey as he leads us through the wondrous landscape of the human heart. "Julip" follows a bright and resourceful young woman as she tries to spring her brother from a Florida jail—he shot three of her former lovers "below the belt." "The Seven-Ounce Man" continues the picaresque adventures of Brown Dog, a Michigan scoundrel who loves to eat, drink, and chase women, all while sailing along in the bottom 10 percent. "The Beige Dolorosa" is the haunting tale of an academic who, recovering from the repercussions of a sexual harassment scandal, turns to the natural world for solace. In each of these stories, the irresistible pull of nature becomes a magnificent backdrop for exploring the toughest questions about life and love.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Three novellas that are rambunctious, spirited chases through rough emotional territory comprise the latest offedring by this protean writer. Typically, his humor tests the borders of the socially acceptable and the extremes of what is tolerable to a character; and there is pleasure to be had in this recklessness. In the title novella, for instance, the 21-year-old Julip goes out on a limb to try to persuade her brother, Bobby, to confess that he's insane so that he can get out of prison, where he's residing for having shot three "older" men who have been Julip's lovers. The wallop of the piece owes something to plot but more to character: it's made up of righteous deviants whose next unseemly act or fancy can't be predicted. "The Seven-Ounce Man," about Harrison's familiar character, Brown Dog (previously seen in The Woman Lit by Fireflies ), is full of vitality but stretches the limits of plausibility as the narrative's contorted path becomes clogged with local color (a waitress who pines cartoonishly for sex; stereotypical lesbians). But Harrison is inherently refreshing, seeming to ditch due respect for civilization and to take off for strange parts. His energy appears unmitigated. Author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The protagonists in this collection of three novellas are spunky aberrants who remain appealing despite their sometimes reprehensible behavior. Julip, whose name suggests the blending of a spring flower with an alcoholic drink, is a fascinating mixture of waiflike innocence and jaded sexuality. Brown Dog, seen earlier in The Woman Lit by Fireflies ( LJ 6/1/90) and revived now in "The Seven Ounce Man," was born "not to cooperate with the world," and lurches unsteadily from barroom brawls to protests against the desecration of Indian burial grounds. In "The Beige Dolorosa" a politically incorrect college professor attacks an "ecocircus" mime but seeks personal salvation by renaming the birds of America. Richly allusive and wickedly funny, Harrison's book offers three delightful studies of unique individuals battling inventively against society's demands for conformity.
- Albert E. Wilhelm, Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press (October 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802143768
• ISBN-13: 978-0802143761
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #370,803 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just Beautiful, June 17, 2009

By 

K. Greer (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Julip: A Novel (Paperback)

Julip is a collection of 3 uniquely written novellas about 3 different but equally spectacular characters. Jim Harrison's writing is easy, flowing and deliberate but at the same time complex and coordinated. I'm constantly jotting down sentences, words and notions from his books that move me enough that I don't want to forget them. Each character somehow shadows my own life - periodically reminding me of myself, those I love and even, sometimes, those I hate. Oddly enough, Jim Harrison's writing is like the thing he writes about so often, a steady river with a constant flow.

I have heard and read a fair amount of negative reactions to his storytelling. Simplistic. Sexist. Perverted. When writing about a man who is thinking about/dreaming about/looking at a woman, Harrison doesn't shy away from overt sexuality and even, it's true, objectification. My argument is this - men are perverts (God love them) and to offer the inner monologue of a middle aged man confronted with a young woman in a short skirt without a little salaciousness would be dishonest. If anything, Harrison's honesty about men's imperfect and impure appreciation of women (demonstrated most expertly by Brown Dog in the second story, "The Seven Ounce Man") shows just whose side he's on. His telling of the young and exceptional Julip, worthy female star of the first novella "Julip", gives her all of the strength and worth and paints her male counterparts, "the Boys", as 3 middle aged men trying sloppily to rescue their own long-dead youths by possessing this powerful and certainly un-possessable 21-year old feminine force.

The last story, "The Beige Dolorosa", is a calm portrait of a middle aged man in an uncomfortable but, ultimately, necessary transition and discovery of himself. This story is an examination of nature and literature woven into the foreground of a weak-kneed but wonderful Midwestern professor forced through exigent circumstances to spend his 50's on a cattle ranch in the wilds of Arizona.

Harrison's books offer extraordinary humor, nature, desperation, discomfort and personal discovery in equal measure and this collection is one of his best.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ENTERTAINING, EMOTIONAL, AND HUMOROUS, April 8, 2006

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Julip (Hardcover)

This collection of novellas by acclaimed poet and novelist Jim Harrison is to savor. He once said, "Art should be a process of discovery, or it's boring." Reading Julip is an engrossing emotional discovery as we share the lives of characters that only this author can create.

Julip, the title piece in this presentation of three stories is about an irrepressible 21-year-old whose name is "the mixture of a flower and a drink." Apt description that. Julip tries to convince her brother to say he is insane so that he might be released from prison. Brother Bobby is there for shooting (not fatally) Julip's three wealthy boyfriends.

In The Seven-Ounce Man another appearance is made by one of Harrison's familiar characters, Brown Dog. Many met Brown Dog, a rapscallion and ex-Bible student who lives in Michigan's Peninsula, in The Woman Lit By Fireflies. This incarnation finds Brown Dog the victim of Native American activists. B.D. enjoys the simple life - he reads Popular Mechanics and likes pork and beans.

The Beige Dolorosa, the title of the third story, is the name that a defrocked academic, Phillip Caulkins, has given to a bird, one bird among the 700 North American varieties he has decided to rename. Caulkins's daughter comes to his rescue and deports him to Arizona, where he becomes interested in ranch life and being a cowboy.

As always, Harrison's prose is entertaining and humorous. He is an original.

- Gail Cooke

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars entertaining, emotional, humorous, December 24, 2010

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Julip (Paperback)

This collection of novellas by acclaimed poet and novelist Jim Harrison is to savor. He once said, "Art should be a process of discovery, or it's boring." Reading Julip is an engrossing emotional discovery as we share the lives of characters that only this author can create.

Julip, the title piece in this presentation of three stories is about an irrepressible 21-year-old whose name is "the mixture of a flower and a drink." Apt description that. Julip tries to convince her brother to say he is insane so that he might be released from prison. Brother Bobby is there for shooting (not fatally) Julip's three wealthy boyfriends.

In The Seven-Ounce Man another appearance is made by one of Harrison's familiar characters, Brown Dog. Many met Brown Dog, a rapscallion and ex-Bible student who lives in Michigan's Peninsula, in The Woman Lit By Fireflies. This incarnation finds Brown Dog the victim of Native American activists. B.D. enjoys the simple life - he reads Popular Mechanics and likes pork and beans.

The Beige Dolorosa, the title of the third story, is the name that a defrocked academic, Phillip Caulkins, has given to a bird, one bird among the 700 North American varieties he has decided to rename. Caulkins's daughter comes to his rescue and deports him to Arizona, where he becomes interested in ranch life and being a cowboy.

As always, Harrison's prose is entertaining and humorous. He is an original.

- Gail Cooke