River Swimmer - Read Jim Fulner

Audiobook, 208 pages

English language

Published Jan. 3, 2014 by Grove/Atlantic, Incorporated.

ISBN:: 978-0-8021-2220-9

Jim Harrison is one of America's most beloved and critically acclaimed authors, and this collection of novellas is Harrison at his most memorable—a brilliant rendering of two men striving to find their way in the world, written with freshness, abundant wit, and profound humanity.

In "The Land of Unlikeness," sixty-year-old art history academic Clive—a failed artist, divorced and grappling with the vagaries of his declining years—reluctantly returns to his family's Michigan farmhouse to visit his aging mother. The return to familiar territory triggers a jolt of renewal—of ardor for his high school love, of his relationship with his estranged daughter, and of his own lost love of painting. In the title story, "The River Swimmer," Harrison ventures into the magical as an Upper Peninsula farm boy is irresistibly drawn to the water as an escape and sees otherworldly creatures there. Faced with the injustice and pressure of coming of …

Jim Harrison is one of America's most beloved and critically acclaimed authors, and this collection of novellas is Harrison at his most memorable—a brilliant rendering of two men striving to find their way in the world, written with freshness, abundant wit, and profound humanity.

In "The Land of Unlikeness," sixty-year-old art history academic Clive—a failed artist, divorced and grappling with the vagaries of his declining years—reluctantly returns to his family's Michigan farmhouse to visit his aging mother. The return to familiar territory triggers a jolt of renewal—of ardor for his high school love, of his relationship with his estranged daughter, and of his own lost love of painting. In the title story, "The River Swimmer," Harrison ventures into the magical as an Upper Peninsula farm boy is irresistibly drawn to the water as an escape and sees otherworldly creatures there. Faced with the injustice and pressure of coming of age, he takes to the river and follows its siren song all the way across Lake Michigan.

1 edition

JIm FUlner reviewed River Swimmer by Jim Harrison

4 stars

This audio book was extremely well written, really deserving a 5 star rating for writing quality, however, I found many of the scenes incredibly inapproiate. I'm still having dirty dreams and fantasy's about a scene with a green dress in a '47 Plymouth. So for that it is really deserving of no more than a 2, so I split the difference on a 3.5. returnreturnThis short 4 disc audio book is two separate "Novellas" the first, that had the aforementioned scene, is about a guy from Northern Lower Michigan who grew up on a farm and went off to college to be an artists and eventually became a stuck up art historian, making the measly salary of $200,000/yr and has to move back home at the age of 60 to help his aging mother, rekindling a high school romance etc. etc. returnreturnThe second story ,far shorter, is about a 17 …

This audio book was extremely well written, really deserving a 5 star rating for writing quality, however, I found many of the scenes incredibly inapproiate. I'm still having dirty dreams and fantasy's about a scene with a green dress in a '47 Plymouth. So for that it is really deserving of no more than a 2, so I split the difference on a 3.5. returnreturnThis short 4 disc audio book is two separate "Novellas" the first, that had the aforementioned scene, is about a guy from Northern Lower Michigan who grew up on a farm and went off to college to be an artists and eventually became a stuck up art historian, making the measly salary of $200,000/yr and has to move back home at the age of 60 to help his aging mother, rekindling a high school romance etc. etc. returnreturnThe second story ,far shorter, is about a 17 yr/old kid from Manitou Island who swims down to Chicago for the fun of it and to escape his girlfriend's father. He meets a rich girl along the way and all in all he doesn't know what to do with his life, he just wants to swim, and has an obsession with "Water Babies" allegedly the spirit of dead children who now live in the river. I really want to learn more about "water babies" but haven't been successful in my quick internet searches. The second story all contains too many sex scenes but none as graphic as the first. returnreturnI cannot in good conscience recommend this book, but if you are into that sort of thing, I guess now you know it exists.

Subjects

Fiction, psychological
Michigan, fiction