Customer Reviews

Returning to Earth

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

When I opened "Returning to Earth", I was pleasantly surprised to find I knew these characters from Harrison's previous novel "True North". I had not made the connection when reading the book description on Amazon. Upon completing a Harrison story, I immediately miss the company of his characters. When "True North" ended, I very much missed my neurotic friend, David, who thankfully returns in this novel. Finished with "Returning to Earth", I find myself very interested in Lame Deer, Montana.

When reading reviews of Harrison's last few novels, I notice the term "rambling narrative" appears frequently (I guess I just contributed to that trend). I don't know whether to perceive this as a negative or a positive comment. Harrison's narrative takes place in the consciousness of his characters. My own experience with consciousness (I admit there have been a few interruptions along the way) has never been carefully plotted or structured for efficiency. Harrison's characters have thoughts, random, scattered, and yes sometimes rambling thoughts. The narrative carries you along, like only Harrison's prose can, and many of these thoughts become your own by the end of the novel. I will never look at a bear the same way again.

"Returning to Earth" has several meanings for its title. Simply put, it is the burial of the first narrator, his family returning from their journey of grieving or a combination of both meanings. The first half of the book asks how do you die a "good" death while the conclusion asks how do you live your life after the "good" life. The family members narrate their portion of their sadness, struggling not to succumb to the overwhelming grieve. The writing is lyrical and haunting in the manner of a storyteller. Mr. Harrison is the author of 8 novels, 5 novellas ("Legends of the Fall" is the best known) & 8 collections of poetry and this is his best tale yet.

Lou Gehrig's disease is such a horrible way to die. While reading this book I kept in mind watching a friend of mine (also 45 years old) find that he had the disease and watching as one muscle after another failed to function. But for more about the disease, read 'Tuesdays With Morrie.'

This instead is a story of Donald, a man slowly dying and realizing that his family history will die with hime. So he begins dictating stories that he has never shared with anyone else. While this is going on, the family around him has to learn to cope with the realization that he is dying and doing so with dignity.

After Donald's death, his family struggle through their grief at his passing. In the end, they have to go on, as we all do. But the telling of their stories is masterfully done. It's a story of trying to make sense out of life, while understanding that we honor our dead but move on to the future.

It is a tale masterfully told.

Of all of Jim Harrison's works, this one will bless you spiritually in greater measure if you have read some of his earlier works first. Don't read this for entertainment. Read it for a glimpse of appreciating death and those who deal with your departure, whenever that may come. The intimate understanding of a white man who knows of the American Indian experience, the author I refer to, can only write such a story. Somehow, Jim Harrison has been there. To catch a glimpse of the author's mind, the reader must read his prior works. Only then can one appreciate this work. The bear is an animal of great medicine. Wait to read this until you are ready. "One is not ready to die until one is ready to live; and, until one is ready to live, only then are they ready to die."

"Returning to Earth" isn't a novel that marks Harrison exploring new territory late in his career. In fact, much like "True North" and some of his other recent efforts, this novel felt to me like a well-worn, grooved path in a beautiful forest. As the reader, I've walked this path enough to recognize its particular beauties, idiosyncracies, and duldrums. But the path is just so damned beautiful every time, even if the changes are always minuscule. "Returning to Earth" is wrought with geniune characters and a landscape that is detailed honestly and reverently.

Harrison devotees will read and enjoy this book as much for the starkly poetic writing and well-constructed characters as for the feel of being in the presence of one of America's finest artists. Readers new to Harrison might be better served by trying "A Good Day to Die", "Farmer", or his best, "The Road Home". But I do highly recommend this novel.

In a recent radio interview, Jim Harrison laughed when asked about the demographics of his readers. For 40 years, he says, his publishers have been trying to figure that out. His characters typically inhabit less populated, unglamorous locales like the West and Midwest, and whatever wisdom they attain is often gleaned from the natural world. Donald, the central character of RETURNING TO EARTH, is in some ways the Harrison Ur-hero, facing his impending death from Lou Gehrig's disease. "I'm forty-five and it seems I'm to leave the earth early but these things happen to people."

The first of the novel's four parts is in his voice, dictated to his wife Cynthia, recounting what he knows of his family history in order to preserve it for his grown children, Herald and Clare. We find that he is the first male in four generations not to be named Clarence, and that he is probably over half-Chippewa. "For all practical purposes my dad and I weren't the least bit Indian but were just among the ordinary tens of thousands of mixed bloods in the Upper Peninsula."

Donald lost his mother to schizophrenia at a young age, but succeeded as an athlete due to his size. Working alongside his father, in the employ of a wealthy and decadent white family, he fell in love with Cynthia, the daughter, and they ran away and married as teens. Donald intersperses his family history with matter-of-fact comments on his disease and cryptic references to his personal religion, which is rooted in the more traditional Chippewa ways of his Aunt Flower, who lives in the woods and renders lard for her mince pie crusts from pigs she raises and slaughters herself. This digressive tale could be chaotic, but rather it pulls us into the story, gradually introducing the characters who will have to figure out how to carry on without Donald.

The remaining three parts of the novel feature the first person narratives of "K," Donald's friend and nephew; David, Cynthia's brother; and Cynthia herself, all of whom are vastly affected by losing Donald. K is the son of Polly, David's ex-wife, a smart young man who has been away at school but is not sorry to return to Marquette to help with Donald. He is not sorry for many reasons --- he loves and truly admires Donald, he loves and kind of lusts after Cynthia despite their age difference, and he loves and beds their daughter Clare when she finally arrives back on the scene from California. (In case you're paying close attention, K and Clare are not blood cousins, since K is Polly's son from a subsequent marriage.)

K's account covers Donald's death and burial in Canada, where the family can arrange these matters as they wish. David's part picks up after Donald is gone and as he grieves in his own dithering way. David and Cynthia's parents were both rich drunks, their father particularly perverse and at times abusive. As Cynthia says, David is "very nice but has been basically goofy since he was a little boy. He couldn't accept the fact that Dad was a lost cause." David is a womanizer like his father, but different in that he forms deep, lasting attachments to the women in his life and doesn't hanker after jail-bait.

Cynthia's part begins months after Donald's death. She has tried to make plans and continue teaching, but she is continually tired and interrupted by grief. Donald had told her she'd have to get a new boyfriend after he died, and she's aware of her burgeoning need for physical contact, but she's confused about how to go about getting it appropriately. There seems to have been no ambiguity whatsoever in the long, sure love between Donald and Cynthia. And while Cynthia is a realistic, strong person, we wonder along with her whether she'll ever truly heal.

Succinctly, RETURNING TO EARTH is a rich, carefully crafted novel about an admirable life and a good death. As K puts it, "To care for Donald in his present state is to finally understand that there are no miracles except that we exist. Like his ancestor Clarence, we ride a big horse to the east and then it's over."

--- Reviewed by Eileen Zimmerman Nicol

If I had known that this book centered around the death of a loved one, I would not have picked it up. As it was, I only chose it because it was the only thing on the shelf by Harrison and I was looking for "Legends of the Fall." The book is about Donald's death and the way it affects the lives of his wife, daughter, and other family members. For me, it was beyond mundane at some points. I mean, I know death has every day repercussions, but some of it was just a bit too tedious for me. There were other parts that I would have liked more details about (IE Donald's father-in-law's death) that were left a mystery. While the book is told from 4 viewpoints, the only voice I found truly unique was Donald's. The other 3 were only slightly different from each other, which made it harder for me to keep track of who was talking. One thing I did appreciate was that there were not a lot of chronological jumps that aren't super obvious. I tend to get lost in those kinds of things, but I did not have trouble figuring out what happened when. I liked the way it ended, though it was the way I had hoped it would end. Overall, a leisurely read, not completely without pleasure, sad though it was.

I have a love/hate relationship with Harrison's works. I put up with the rambling, often disorganized plots and bleak characters for the beautiful, poetic prose and his strong sense of identity with the land. This book came full-circle in the end, offering the possibility of redemption which is unusual in his writing. Yes, his characters are often caught up in chaotic situations that are often not of their own making, but for most that is the nature of life. I loved this book.

There are writers still in touch with matters of the human heart in conflict. Jim Harrison writes of story that is both humane and compassionate.

Deft writing with scalding pots of humanity. Spirituality takes a swan dive from quarry heights; a writer sets the cleanest line.

Jim Harrison continues the saga of Donald and Cynthia in this heart wrenching novel that addresses terminal illness, loss, humanity, and celebrates life. For some readers, Jim Harrison is a hard read, for me, he is a return home. He is quite simply without a doubt one of the greatest writers of our time. I find release in his rambling narratives and a genius that only a handful of writers can take hold of, harness, and direct.

Returning to Earth is one of Harrisons best works yet, and I find myself wondering truly, how this writer finds time to get it all down. He is a fountain that has no end. Speaking of endings; I for one, felt as if death and re-birth could not have been explained or written about more beautifully. Maybe, one has to have lost a loved one to a terminal illness to truly grasp the pain and love that is contained within these pages.

Returning to Earth, is a continuation of a cast of characters that mirror society. Like it or not, Harrison's eye carves the truth out with no shame. The ending of Returning to Earth is like an unfolding dreamscape, one of the best winding narratives of Harrison's.

And I can even hear the bear calling calling calling