River Runs Through It (Maclean)

A River Runs Through It and Other Stories
Norman Maclean, 1976
University of Chicago Press
276 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781616850425

Summary
This work will captivate readers with its vivid images of Montana's Big Blackfoot River, its tender yet realistic renderings of Maclean's father and trouble-prone brother, and its uncanny blending of fly fishing with the affections of the heart.

In this celebration of the river and the trout that inhabit it, Maclean writes of the river ritual that he shares with his brother Paul. They begin at sunrise and end hours later with cold beer, having fished their limit, since "to women who do not fish, men who come home without their limit are failures in life." As Paul tries to think like a fish, Maclean tries to think like Paul, wainting to find a way to offer help that Paul can accept but concluding, "you can love completely without completely understanding."  (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—December 23, 1902
• Where—Clarinda, Iowa, USA
• Reared—Missoula, Montana
• Death—August 2, 1990
• Where—Chicago, Illinois
• Education—B.A., Dartmouth College; Ph.D., University of
   Chicago
• Awards—National Book Critics Award, 1992

Norman Maclean grew up in the western Rocky Mountains in the early decades of the 20th century. He worked many summers in logging camps and for the U.S. Forest Service. This novella is based on his experiences of a young man who found that life was only a step from art in its structures and beauty. The beauty he found was in reality.

Maaclean was William Rainey Harper Professor of English at the University of Chicago. He died in 1990. (From Wikipedia.)

Book Reviews
On its surface, this beautiful memoir is about the intricacies of fly fishing and the two Montana brothers who fish the big western rivers. Fishing devotees will revel in descriptions of the rhythm, angles, whip and whistle of the perfect cast. We even get a bit of fish psychology: a trout knows it's being tricked if the fly isn't set perfectly on the water. (Read more..).
A LitLovers LitPick (May '07)

Altogether beautiful in the power of its feelings....As beautiful as anything in Thoreau or Hemingway.
Alfred Kazin - Chicago Tribune Book World

This is more than stunning fiction: It is a lyric record of a time and of a life, shining with Maclean's special gift for calling the reader's attention to arts of all kinds—the arts that work in nature, in personality, in social intercouse, in fly-fishing.
Kenneth M. Pierce - Village Voice

The title novella is the prize…Something unique and marvelous: a story that is at once an evocation of nature's miracles and realities and a probing of human mysteries. Wise, witty, wonderful, Maclean spins his tales, casts his flies, fishes the rivers and the woods for what he remembers from his youth in the Rockies.
Barbara Bannon - Publishers Weekly

Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)


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