LEGENDS OF THE FALL. [Paperback]

Jim. Harrison (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Flamingo (1992)
• ISBN-10: 0583324517
• ISBN-13: 978-0583324519
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,159,203 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Story, interesting style, September 16, 2001

By 

J. A Magill (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Legends of the Fall (Paperback)

Like most of the people I know who read this book, I picked it up after seeing the movie. While I enjoyed both in their own right, they are so different that going from one to the other adds nothing to either.

While the movie's most notable qualities are a breath of story and an epic scope, the book is beautiful for its economy of words and distant style. Written in the third person, as opposed to the film's heavy handed first person, the perspective is all knowing, yet reveals few details. The author brings the characters to life to some degree, but what is amazing is that they are interesting given their one dimensionality. The story, short as it is, contains much less of the deep intertwined relations of the movie, but I believe that makes it much improved over the screen version.

While everyone focuses on the title story, the other two that are included are also enjoyable. As a read, each of the stories is quite quick and complete. If you are taking a trip in several staggered stints, this is a good book to take along and pass the time.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 10x better than the movies, August 5, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Oxford, Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Legends of the Fall (Paperback)

That two of the three novellas in this book have been produced as motion pictures should tell you something. In fact, when I first read this collection I thought each of the three stories sounded like fleshed-out Hollywood 'treatments'. The writing is tight and concise, yet stunningly poignant. Harrison's true calling is as a poet, and he uses that training to full effect, creating crystal-clear images in the turn of a phrase. The result is never abstract, however; Harrison is also an outdoorsman whose knowledge of nature is equaled by his uncanny ability to portray his characters' surroundings in lucid, even beautiful prose. Read this book. You may become a Harrison adict.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A timeless work of art., September 17, 2000

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[e-mail] (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Legends of the Fall (Paperback)

Upon watching the film for the first time, I wanted to know more about the characters. The film, although well casted (Pitt,Hopkins,Quin and Ormond),does not do much for the book. The book is a timeless work of art. When reading a book, I tend to feel the pain and suroundings of each chatacter. You can only do this to a point in a film. With the book I was lost in the life, and death of the Ludlow family. It was so wounderful to get inside Tristin and the others and experience what their life was all about. Mr. Harrison has done wounderful works of art. I hope to find more!