A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition

A River Runs Through It is Norman Maclean’s affectionate and lyrical account of the bond fly fishing forged between himself and his father and brother. Fly fishing is a metaphor for beauty and grace but ultimately the book is about loving those we do not understand. Although I think I understand the role of fly fishing in the book, I am not a fisherman and eventually found the descriptions of the minutia of the art a little tiresome. That said, I love this book and have read it several times.There are two other stories in the volume, Logging and Pimping and “Your Pal, Jim” and "USFS 1919: The Ranger, the Cook, and a Hole in the Sky". Both are good but neither rises to the level of River.

Honestly? I just couldn't get into it. I hate fishing, except as a video game. this book is so dull that I would use it to start a fire if it was my own book.

On the surface, the title story is his recollections of his father, a Presbyterian minister, and his troubled but talented brother, with whom he fished. Set in the Montana of Maclean's youth, he paints exquisitely vivid and beautiful word pictures of a land and water and family now gone. At the core is the frustration of the often-futile attempt of trying to help another or trying to save a loved one from their self-destruction. (this paragraph lifted from Amazon)This is one of my favorite books - MacLean's description of the river, the mountains, and the trees is poetry in prose. The imagery is compelling. The book is highly autobiographical: though it focuses on a small part of the author's life, he tells the story so that everything that he has learned about life reflects through these experiences. This book is full of beautiful language describing nature, people, and God.

At first I was really annoyed by this book. It was set up in such a weird way. Instead of chapters this novel was one continuous story. This continued to annoy me until I read the following found towards the end of the novel. "As the heat mirages on the river in front of me danced with and through each other, I could feel patterns from my own life joining with them. It was here, while waiting for my brother, that I started this story, although, of course, at the time I did not know that stories of life are often more like rivers than books. But I knew a story had begun, perhaps long ago near the sound of water. And I sensed that ahead I would meet something that would never erode so there would be a sharp turn, deep circles a deposit, and quietness" (99). The book is set up the way it is because of the river.
It's a great little read. You'll learn a lot about fishing and just life in general. I would recommend checking it out.

A really lovely and understated book. Took me a while to get into it, however. It was also one of those books that I wish I had just sat down and read in one sitting (it's only 150 pages) because I think it would have had a greater impact as a whole thing.

Sometimes there was a little too much information about fly fishing. I get that it was sometimes a metaphor, but still...

I did love the way that the approach to fly fishing reflected the family relationships and expectations. I thought the last scene was beautiful.

a very wonderful book

This is a collection of several stories. Each intrigued me and I read about the characters with interest. It starts as a fly fishing narrative and continues to document the development of Northern Idaho and Western Montana during the early 20th century. Those people existed and had many adventures that the reader lives through the author. Each story stands alone; the first has been turned into a movie. The others are just as exciting and fulfilling. Too bad the author did not produce many books--he's good.

A River Runs Through it is an excellent adventure into the wilderness of Montana. For someone who dreams of going fly fishing in the rivers of Montana, this book was a joy. Norman Maclean is a good author who describes scenery and emotion with ease.

What can I say? This is an amazing book, one that is good to come back to. Great as a fly fishing narrative and as a examination of family relationships. I loved it!

One novella (the title story) and two shorter stories, all placed in the Montana and Idaho mountains. Maclean's voice is deeply personal, his writing lyrical, and his characters are so real it's hard to imagine this as fiction. Each of the stories is from the perspective of an older man looking back on younger days.In the title story, a man tries to save, and then just to understand his brother and himself, through the prism of the country and fly-fishing. The descriptions are so entwined with the characters that I felt I knew both by the end. The scenery is never there just for filler - but it filled me with a longing to see it nevertheless.The other two stories, "Logging and Pimping and "Your Pal,Jim"", and "USFS 1919: The Ranger, the Coook and a Hole in the Sky", are set in logging camps in the same area, with a young narrator making his way among other men and within himself. Wonderful writing, wonderful stories.

Maclean does a superb job in the novella, which is rightly considered a classic.

It drives me slightly crazy when people suggest this book is about fly fishing (and I say that as a fly fisherman). It's about Maclean's family, and to that end, he carefully and honestly paints a group portrait that absolutely entranced me.

A River Runs Through It was turned into a movie (and survived it better than most works of literature), and has been commercialized and overused by every fly fishermen who fancies himself a writer.

Fortunately, the book sits, waiting to be read and enjoyed for what it is -- a superb portrait of an interesting (if somewhat tragic) family. A must read.

"The world is full of sons-of-bitches, and the frequency of their occurrence increases the further you get from Missoula, Montana."

A beautiful story filled to the brim with astounding metaphor the way a river is filled to the brim with words, movement and life. A few of my favorite quotes:"One of life's quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself and watch something beautiful, even if it is only a floating ash.""I sat there and forgot and forgot, until what remained was the river that went by and I who watched. On the river the heat mirages danced with each other and then they danced through each other and then they joined hands and danced around each other. Eventually the watcher joined the river, and there was only one of us. I believe it was the river.""All there is to thinking," he said " is seeing something noticeable which makes you see something you weren't noticing which makes you see something that isn't even visible."And the last paragraph, which is perhaps the "more perfect" last paragraph ever written: "Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timelss raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.I am haunted by waters."Highly recommended.

There are three stories in this volume, which is described as semi-autobiographical fiction. The title story is about fly fishing and was a total bore since I care nothing about fishing. The story I would give one star. The second story in the book is entitled "Logging and Pimping and Your Pal Jim". It tells of logging and is of some interest because of its description of the work of sawyers. The third story is "USFS 1919: The Ranger, the Cook, and a Hole in the Sky." It tells a passably interesting story about work as a forest ranger and of a card game and a fight, and is responsible for the book getting three stars from me.

While these stories were very enjoyable, both from the skillful telling and the subjects, it also left me sad. I was sad to think of all the years lost where Norman Maclean hadn't picked up the author's tools and I was sad for a world that no longer exists and the characters that we're unlikely to ever meet. I guess that means it's a great book.

While I am not normally a fan of any author classified as a "regional writer" or a "western writer," this was fantastic. I had almost forgotten the pleasure of a wonderfully crafted, recently written novel. Just remarkable, fantastic, lovely.I think that part of what I enjoyed about this book was that it evoked for me a very specific image of the American West that I grew up in, even though I was only tangential to it; it rang true enough that I wanted to keep reading and was strange enough that I wanted to keep reading. This is one classic that absolutely deserves the name.

I enjoyed this book immensely. Maclean has a wonderful way of writing that makes me think of my father. This was an enjoyable read, and definitely a classic I'll keep on my personal bookshelf to pass on to my son when he is older.

In case anyone reads the review and is worried, the information I've referred to in it, whilst containing plot details, is not a Spoiler as Maclean himself refers to the events at the beginning of the novella. I have focused on the main piece in this collection, 'A River Runs Through It' as it is the most substantial of the three novellas."In our family there was no clear line between religion and fly-fishing"So starts the chronicle of the hot summer of 1937, the last Maclean spent with his younger brother Paul. This is an unparalleled piece of writing, a poignant and captivating memoir of a particular moment in time for this family and an evocative description of a bygone era in Montana. Maclean's descriptive talents are immense and there is great poetry to his portrayal of fly-fishing as an art form. He applies them equally as effectively when describing the natural world around him and the reader is transported to a time past - feeling the lazy summer heat and the constant flow of the great Montana waters.He is exceptionally perceptive in his description and analysis of his relationship with his brother Paul. The mirroring of their interaction in the landscape as the brothers cross the Continental Divide at the same time as it becomes apparent there is a great divide in their own lives is subtly achieved.It is a short work that is peppered with humour to balance the poignancy of events, none more so than the extremely funny description of the disdain which fly fisherman have for fishermen of the bait variety. The descriptions of Maclean's brother-in-law (a bait fisherman, no less) especially on the ill-fated fishing trip which culminated in a naked, sunburnt prostitute running down the main street, are ascerbic and brilliant.This short novella is as much a history of the waters and fish of Montana, as it is of the family Maclean. The river lives in it as a character all of its own and the reader finds themselves infused with the same love and enthusiasm for fish and the art of fly-casting as Maclean and his family have."If you listen carefully, you will hear that the words are underneath the water"Maclean's use of words and vocabulary choices are second to none. This piece is rich and full. I found myself noting so many quotes from it, just because I found his phrasing so beautiful and his meaning so relevant. It is a piece that is based on a deep foundation of words that breathe life into the natural world around the protagonists.In the end, however, this story of a family tragedy is heartbreaking. The description of the final fishing trip the sons took with their ageing father is almost painful as the reader is already equipped with the knowledge each moment is one that would never be repeated. Maclean artfully conveys the inevitability of Paul's death through his character building and leaves the reader aching for the loss both to the family and the world, of a brother, a son and an artist.I cannot recommend this highly enough. It is a classic work and is both moving and affecting. Maclean puts it more eloquently than I ever could:"I am haunted by waters".

Norman Maclean grew up in Montana in the 1920's and this novella and two other short stories describe his experiences there. In many ways it wasn't so different from the way I remember growing up in Arizona in the 1950's. The West was always a tough place. The title story of Maclean's fine book was made into a movie staring Brad Pitt and directed by Robert Redford, but I don't remember it having the same effect as reading the story did. An excellent book for rainy afternoons when the wife is complaining about cleaning the house alone and you remember how full of promise life used to be for a young man growing up in the West.

In my opinion, this is one of the most beautiful books ever written. I'm not a reader who often rereads books. This is one of the very few that I will and have read over and over and over again. So authentic, so lyrical, heart-felt, beautiful. Oddly, it is so beautiful that I can't really bring myself to continue reading the "other stories" in the book! I start into Your Pal Jim... and feel like I left my home for another, less appealing locale... longingly looking over my shoulder regretting that I had to leave in the first place.

How can you not love this book? Norman Maclean made me want to write.

i've only read a river runs through it.. not any of the other short stories. it's a very pretty story, and well written. who knew fly fishing would be so interesting?

This is probably my favorite book. I want to call it pseudo-autobiographical because it's based on fact, but these facts are freely bent for literary effect. What makes this book so powerful is that so much happens between the lines. The fundamental emotions are unspoken, or only mentioned. But the weight of them is readily felt. They are wrapped within a story where religion is fly fishing; and, polished by striking descriptions of land and nature. Maclean even knows his geology.

I was bored . . . 100 pages without much happening. Most interesting part? Someone gets sunburnt where NO ONE should. The end.

I enjoyed it, but at only a hundred pages, I somehow thought it would be more. This might be one of those rare occasions when I got more out of the movie than the book.

I’ve returned to my past, to a glorious part of it with a book titled A River Runs Through It. I’ve returned to this book a number of times before, but like so many other things that my late wife and I shared a strong passion for, it has become a little more bittersweet in its glory now these many years later. The book shares its pages with two stories also by Norman Maclean, “Logging and Pimping and ‘Your Pal, Jim’” and “USFS 1919: The Ranger, the Cook, and a Hole in the Sky.” The first is quite a short piece, while the second is much longer, but they both allow Maclean to draw on his long experience with the backwoods of Montana, and the hard life of loggers and those in the United States Forest Service. While these two stories are rougher than River in many ways—partly as they lack the family connection of the novella—they are strong stories on their own. I returned to the book after catching the last third of Robert Redford’s beautiful movie based on the book. This edition has an excellent foreword written by Redford that gives some insights into the author’s thoughts. Redford learned much while fishing with him, as he courted the man for his permission to film a version of the book. Most unfortunately, Maclean died before the movie got into production, but the movie’s stunning last scene features the author in his natural habitat. Maclean is shown by the water with his fly rod, casting in the canyon’s fading light, as Redford’s narration reads the last haunting lines of the book. The story and emotions of A River Runs Through It are good enough to eat, but I’m afraid that it would taste like fish, and fish rarely pleases my palate. Somewhere in my fabled boxes of books in a nearby storage unit, are at least two editions of this book. One has the gorgeous drawings of Barry Moser. At my present rate, I will never get through my only wealth left in life—all those boxes of books collected over both Vicky’s and my own years of bookselling and reading. We’d always held to a fantasy that we would once again live somewhere that would allow us to shelve all our wealth again, making any book available to pick off a shelf to reread or loan to a friend. Vicky had always wanted to name a bookstore Old Friends, because that’s what one’s very favorite books become. But we always feared that the public would assume that we were only selling used books and we looked elsewhere for a store name. So, I live on alone, with most all my old friends in boxes. Nowadays, I wish we’d used that name and simply educated our customers about making old friends of new books. Our extensive book collection has been boxed up for far too many years. In the end, I gave another bookstore a sale, so that I could spend some perfectly golden time reading A River Runs Through It, all over again.

Three short stories drawing on Maclean's life as a forest employee, a logger and his family. The main story is centered on family and fishing, fly fishing to be exact. All three stories are told with beautiful prose and makes you feel like you are there with them'

This novella and two stories – one almost another novella in itself – are full of the nature of the western U.S., around Montana and Idaho. Loggers, early forest service workers, and fly fishermen figure prominently. And although nature is ever present, the characters are at the forefront. The title story is about fly-fishing and family. In the story, as in fishing, much occurs under the surface. The narrator, his brother Paul, and their minister father are all serious and devoted fly fishermen. Fishing and religion held equally important places in their lives as children. Fishing now takes priority, at least for the sons: “It is not fly fishing if you are not looking for answers to questions.” The similarities end there. Paul, the best fisherman among them, is a reporter with a drinking problem and a troubled life. Their father, a gentle man, “believed that man by nature was a mess.” Their mothers and wives are the glue that holds everything together outside of fishing. At the end, they are all trying to become “the author of something beautiful, even if it is only a floating ash.”A young logger admires and feels compelled to compete for manhood with “the best lumberjack in camp” over the summer’s logging in 1927 in “Logging and Pimping and ‘Your Pal, Jim’.”In “USFS 1919: The Ranger, the Cook, and a Hole in the Sky” the 17 year old narrator works in a forest service crew for the summer led a by a ranger, Bill Bell, when “they still picked rangers for the Forest Service by picking the toughest guy in town.” The crew cook, who the narrator doesn’t like, is a card shark. The crew engages in an end of the summer rite – “cleaning out the town” in a card game, and it goes about as expected – with trouble.These are richly and wonderfully told stories of growing into manhood, and further, in the west.

I’m the daughter of a fisherman --- a bass fisherman to be precise. Trust me, it matters. Going into this story, I had few expectations other than I would love it, having loved the movie long before reading this. Talk about expectations being met. Not only is this story wonderfully moving but it brought back a lot of memories I have of fishing with my dad and grandpa. While Norman and his brother Paul are fly fisherman obsessed with the sport and the mechanics of it, the two are easy to relate to and you see how fishing became a metaphor for the lives of these two men. Norman begins the story by laying out the terms by which his father and brother live. And by live I mean fish. Fishing is their life --- sad, stressed, and/or happy --- they fish. It transports them to another place where time doesn’t so much matter as long as you get your limit. Paul is a stubborn soul and Norman admits to not being able to understand him or connect with him on his own level which both frustrates and amazes him. His life is boring but orderly and while he may not be the happiest of people, Norman knows who and what he is. Paul is unpredictable, strange, and a wonder with a rod anywhere near water. Even their father has trouble relating to Paul but everyone stands in awe of him, from the careless way he leads his life to the way he can fish a river. A River Runs Through It is a short chronicle of Paul’s life and Norman’s struggle to understand it. It’s also very sad but I won’t go into spoilers here. You do have to read it to understand the depth he manages to convey with so few words. It’s astonishing. I love the role the Montana landscape plays in this story. It’s a living being especially the river in which they fish and consider almost a reverent part of the family in ways. Neither brother fears the river although they have a certain respect for it but it’s Paul who seems able to tame it and that’s where Norman’s awe of his brother comes in. His descriptions of Paul’s fishing are poetic in a way. His descriptions of Paul’s fishing abilities are poetic in a way and should be read to be fully appreciated so I won't try to describe it for you. There are a few additional stories in the book I have, A River Runs Through It being the only one I’ve read so far. Since this is a short story and the best known of Maclean’s work, I wanted to include it here as a separate review. I think it warrants that. It’s an emotionally moving story that feels much longer than its scant 100 pages.

There are three stories in this book, the title tale being the longest and most famous of the three. All three read like memoirs – which to a great extent they are – of a young man coming of age in the American midwest during the early 1900’s. All are stories of men most at home in the outdoors, guys who like to fish, to fight and to drink, who will never use two words when one will do, and would just as soon use no words at all. As one of these men, Maclean brings his world into sharp focus with little dialog or analysis, using spare but highly visual narration to achieving clarity and even poetry within the limitations his world places upon him. Few women raise their heads in these stories, and those who dare are of only two types:*The “whores” are very much like the men; they share their adventures, but are neither loved nor respected by them. *The strong "Scotswomen” rule the roost, serving as Christian wives and mothers, operating in the background while providing a firm foundation for life. The men love them, but prefer not to have too many run-ins with them.I propose that the book will appeal best to men and/or those who enjoy the outdoor life, although even a woman who prefers a comfortable chair by the fire will find truth in its pages.