The True Bones of My Life: Essays on the Fiction of Jim Harrison Book

"I can't begin," wrote Raymond Carver, in the Washington Post Book World, "to do justice to the nuances of character and honest complexities of plot in (Legends of the Fall). The writing is precise and careful -- and sings withal." Jim Harrison is one of the American greats. His fiction is diverse in its genre, protagonist, and setting: from novel to novella; from comically masculine rogue to the psychically scarred female; from wilderness to city. In The True Bones of My Life, Smith examines the metaphors Harrison uses to offer critical entrance into his fiction - food, place, ecological concerns, journey, "soul history," and region. Harrison?s fiction contains the underlying currents of alienation and lost identity, and he uses these currents imbedded in modern life to explore the viability of the mythic quest and the American Dream. This work, the first full-length critical analysis of his writing, illuminates Harrison?s diversity and range and places him in the top tier of contemporary American authors.Read More