The Farmer's Daughter: Novellas Paperback – September 7, 2010

This is one of Jim Harrison's most satisfying books in many years. If you intend to read it, you might want to avoid all reviews and comments and simply read it fresh. If you need more incentive to read it, then read on.The title, THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER, resonating with the many cliched variations of the joke, is a fine choice for the interplay of masculine/feminine in these three novellas, entirely different, yet linked by more than Patsy Cline's rendition of the Roger Miller song of alienation, "The Last Word In Lonesome Is Me."The opening sentence of the first novella nails down the sense of alienation: "She was born peculiar, or so she thought." Her favorite idol is Montgomery Clift in "The Misfits." The first variation on the-farmer's-daughter is a coming of age story.In the second novella, Harrison's everyman/Native American Brown Dog is the middle man, existentially and humorously muddling his way across, playing his part in creation but agnostic to the meaning of it all. When he hears "Who are we that God is mindful of us?" he turns the question around and says, "Who is God that we are mindful of Him?"Harrison's symbols resonate on theme. Gretchen tells Brown Dog that they should go for three times at creation, "three, not two." She finds the creation act "bearable" but wants to stop at three. Brown Dog has "the absurd feeling of a reverse Christmas in May" and recalls the holiday line, "The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow." He flops down on a trash bag "to make a snow angel."The third roughly 100-page-novella in here is the more spiritual, a vampire story of altered consciousness, alienated but advancing toward love, at last remarking how wonderful it is to finally make love with someone you actually love.The first novella opens with a line of alienation. The closing of the third novella ends with the protagonist recognizing the interconnectedness of living things, the ME of LonesoME diminishing in the evolution of the self toward empathy, a recurring point in Jim Harrison's Buddhism/naturalism worldview.There is an epilogue to the third novella in which the protagonist encounters a dead bear and says "at least for a moment I felt as if we were cousins."Jim Harrison's humor in here is a hoot. Somehow, I have to fit this onto my list of the top five best books of the year.

jh is my favorite author.this isn't his best, but the first 2 stories I liked, so 2 out of 3 isn't bad...........

Few authors master the art of the Novella with the innate skill and ingenuity of Jim Harrison!Yes... he is macho!...testosterone driven, dark and lusty...but writes with such clarity...it is shiveringly stunning!He at once repels and then lures the reader back with jolting language and lucid descriptions.Reading Harrison is like a jeopardous journey...he takes the reader to places unknown, but that feel uncomfortably and vaguely familiar.The 'animal within' human nature is prodded out and laid bare with no apology for social conventions.Hate him or love him...this man is truly a master story-teller!THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER (3 very different novellas) is well worth the journey!

Jim Harrison's works have always been among my favorites. Legends of the Fall is a novella that stands with Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Dalva one of the finest novels I have ever read. His poetry is masterful, muscular, spiritual, naturalistic. He is an American treasure, one of our most revered authors. In his books people actually breathe fresh air. They hunt, ride horses, camp, fly-fish, hike, living an active life. These are the books for the drawing rooms or the halls of academia. Harrison's characters have lives.The Farmer's Daughter is a disappointing effort. Perhaps Harrison has mined his rich vein too often. The same bowl of menudo and Patsy Cline's "The Last Word in Lonesome is Me" find their way into each of the three novellas. The novella that gives the collection its title covers well-trodden Harrison themes. As in many of his books and novellas a piece of property is inherited by the protagonist, giving a sense of freedom and isolation. The second novella features Brown Dog, Harrison's Native-American alter-ego, a libidinous ne'er-do-well attempting to rescue his profoundly damaged daughter from the clutches of the state bureaucracy. The third novella, the best in this weak collection, returns to another of Harrison's trusty themes, werewolves. (In his memoir Harrison confesses that one night he's convinced he himself turned into a wolf! He also mentions in the introduction to that memoir that memory is a funny thing and he couldn't vouch for even his own veracity.)Don't let this be your first introduction to Jim Harrison. Nearly everything else he has written is better.

Clean crisp copy, arrived as promised.

How do you avoid wading deeper into this book when the opening line is, "She was born peculiar, or so she thought." Only Jim Harrison can exploit the exotic nuances of language, tapping into the world of the sublime, creating the frame to which we observe "otherness"--in the absence of parental interest, the perpetuity of prepubescent angst, the inexplicable appetite of the gut, and the wistful wonderment of earth's landscape--to recognizing a reflection, seen in the act of laying down beside an aged dead bear, the partially consumed calf, and the bright blue sky above: "It's not you or me but us."

How can you go wrong when there’s a Brown Dog in the mix? Can’t get home to Michigan? Read Jim Harrison.

This book is a very enjoyable read. I am always on the lookout for great short stories and this book gets an A+. Each story keeps you on the edge of your seat and Harrison has a way of weaving in backstory to create a vibrant and masterful tale. I highly recommend this book.