Sundog (Contemporary Classics (Washington Square Press)) [Paperback]

Jim Harrison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1991 | Series: Contemporary Classics (Washington Square Press)

In the wilds of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Robert Corvus Strang is crawling through the woods. A beautiful Costa Rican woman is dancing in a string bikini, and a dissipated writer is trying to stay on his feet....All three have retreated to this isolated land -- where Strang, builder of dams and bridges, preacher of gospels, lover of women, explorer of limits, launches into the story of his monumental life. In a novel that stretches from Michigan to Africa and the Amazon, Strang leads his listeners across rivers of time, through the nature of innocence, politics and desire, to a final and stunning defiance of life's frailty.

Editorial Reviews

Review

San Francisco Chronicle Harrison is brilliant at portraying this wild country....The pulse of Sundog... is the concern with life's meaningfulness....This is a book of the spirit. -- Review

About the Author

Jim Harrison is the author of three volumes of novellas, Legends of the Fall, The Woman Lit by Fireflies, and Julip; seven novels, Wolf, A Good Day to Die, Farmer, Warlock, Sundog, Dalva, and The Road Home; seven collections of poetry; and a collection of nonfiction, Just Before Dark. He has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He lives in northern Michigan and Arizona.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: Washington Square Press (February 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671741519
• ISBN-13: 978-0671741518
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #433,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Unsophisticated Reader Sounds Off, March 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Sundog (Contemporary Classics (Washington Square Press)) (Paperback)

When I read for pleasure, the most important thing to me is the quality of the fictional dream. If it pulls me in and captures my imagination, I'm happy and satisfied. I really don't pay much attention to whatever messages the author might be trying to send to the readers, or what deeper meanings might be concealed in the prose. I just want to be carried off in a fictional dream which provokes thought and perhaps changes my outlook, if only for a short time. SUNDOG is such a book. The fictional dream it creates is wonderful and seductive. I've reread this book time and again and it just keeps getting better and better. You should read it; I bet you'll like it, and enjoy it. Harrison's talent is really something rare and great, and this book is one of my all-time favorites.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jim Harrison is a national treasure worth reading, March 31, 2002

By 

Michail Kyril (Redmond, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sundog: The story of an American foreman, Robert Corvus Strang, as told to Jim Harrison (Hardcover)

This powerful novel by the author of LEGENDS OF THE FALL and Farmer concerns the life and loves of a foreman named Robert Corvus Strang. Strang worked on giant dam projects in the U.S., South America, and Africa, until he was crippled in a fall down a three-hundred-foot dam. Now as he tries to regain use of his legs, he has a chance to reassess his life, and a bored journalist who has heard of Strang's reputation in the field arrives to draw him out about his various incarnations. Strang recounts his life, including his childhood in the Midwest, his several marriages and children, dozens of lovers, and his work on projects around the world. Strang has the violently heightened sensibilities of a man who has gone to the limits and back, a man who is passionately and unequivocally committed to life. Harrison captures the foreman's tale with head-on frankness and clarity that needs no elaboration, no embellishment. This is a story as true and gripping as real life, and ultimately as victorious.

About the Author -- Jim Harrison has been awarded the National Endowment for the Arts (1968-69) and the Guggenheim Fellowship (1969-70). He is the author of WOLF: A FALSE MEMOIR, A GOOD DAY TO DIE, FARMER, LEGENDS OF THE FALL, WARLOCK, and SELECTED AND NEW POEMS. The author has lived in Michigan, Arizona, and Montana.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fabulous novel written with verve, August 10, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Sundog (Contemporary Classics (Washington Square Press)) (Paperback)

Sundog is a quirky story of Everyman's encounter with a superman. The book is peppered with sage observations of life, profound yet sensible, a one-man effort to establish a Northern school of fiction.

It's the first modern novel I've read in years that made my "must read again" list.