Legends of the Fall

The three novellas by Jim Harrison collected in Legends of the Fall took my breath away when I read them, and made me wonder why in the world it took so long for me to discover Harrison. His language is sparse and clean--reminiscent to a certain extent of Cormac McCarthy's--but it has a musical/poetic rhythm to it that is uniquely his own. His ability to create images, plots, and characters that keep the reader riveted is profound, especially given the fact that he uses (at least in the last two of the three novellas collected here) almost no character dialogue. The publisher's blurb for Legends of the Fall say that the three stories all deal with the theme of revenge, but this strikes me as a paltry characterization of their richness. What the stories do have in common is that the protagonists in each of them suffer a fall from "innocence." In Revenge, the main character discovers that the "innocence" of honest and passionate romantic love can exact a horrific price. In The Man Who Gave Up His Name, the main character loses a sense of who he is after his "innocence" is shattered by the break-up of a nearly twenty-year marriage. In Legends of the Fall, the main character, an "innocent" child of the Montana plains, is traumatized by the violence of the world. Yet the fall from innocence in each of these "legends" isn't hopeless. Life lessons are learned in each case, even if the lesson hurts terribly. This is especially evident in the middle novella. Norstrom, the main character, loses his old identity. But in the losing of it, he acquires a more sensitive appreciation of the everyday. It's as if his loss of self leaves an open, receptive space that wasn't there before. Having said that, though, I think it's a mistake to try to reduce these novellas to a single, overarching theme. They're honest narratives of the complexities of what it means to be human. The characters behave admirably at times, reprehensibly at others. Nothing is cookie-cutter, nothing inauthentically simple. Harrison's faithfulness to the tangled web of human relationships, plus his mastery of his craft, makes these novellas minor masterpieces. I look forward to reading more from him.

Upon watching the film for the first time, I wanted to know more about the characters. The film, although well casted (Pitt,Hopkins,Quin and Ormond),does not do much for the book. The book is a timeless work of art. When reading a book, I tend to feel the pain and suroundings of each chatacter. You can only do this to a point in a film. With the book I was lost in the life, and death of the Ludlow family. It was so wounderful to get inside Tristin and the others and experience what their life was all about. Mr. Harrison has done wounderful works of art. I hope to find more!

Harrison puts on paper many of the feelings and thoughts that we have all had. Our world is violent and beautiful and dreary all at the same time. He is at times harsh, but always honest with himself and his reader.

THis is a classic novela. Among the best I have ever read. Harrison masters symbolism to represent the division of traditional family values and the modern age of the industrial century. By going "over the mountains" the characters are leaving safety. THis anti war book is brilliant. A masterpiece that even a soldier like myself can enjoy.