Returning to Earth

An extended family deals with the inevitable, in four first-person narratives that range far and wide, from the lives of great-great grandparents to the present. The characters are extraordinarily vivid even by Harrison's standards, and one of the joys of the book is how your perceptions of them change when they become the narrator. Nobody tells a straight ahead story, there are constant digressions and side stories, and this is what makes the characters pop. I've read most of Harrison's poetry and this is the sixth book of his fiction I've read--all novels or novellas. I get drawn into them by the way their stories (and digressions) reveal their humanity,

Still my favorite Jim Harrison novel. In this volume he mastered his characters' inner monologue, presenting with absolute clarity the difficulty of knowing yourself and those closest to you. As a meditation on grief, isolation, death, and love, this is unparalleled in my experience.

I only wish this book depended on the previous, True North slightly less. True North is also excellent, but contains some extremely hard material. It is an important book to set up the characters in Returning To Earth, as the events of True North are defining events for everyone in this story. Returning To Earth is worth the pain of True North, but if there are subjects that are too painful for you, just read a few spoilers before embarking.

Oddly, I would show more warmly recommend Returning To Earth as a quarantine read. On second reading, it was even more cathartic than before. show less

I read this 15 years ago and I needed some insight. So I went to JH. Northern Michigan, fishing, the Great Lakes, sex, family, and Finns & Indians are all here. JH creates characters whose lives are sincere, well lived, and introspective. Growing old, making sense of ones life, finding direction, getting along with families and friends, and dying are told by different characters who I think are aspects of Harrison himself. Sometimes preachy with bad whitey and honest Injun' but more of the life I am familiar with than any authors I read.

At 45, Donald is dying of Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He’s pretty far along when he begins to recite the stories of his life and his family’s history to his wife, who records them and adds her own comments. These are poignant stories involving mixtures of Native American and Western culture in the Michigan Upper Peninsula going back several generations.

Donald views his predicament largely through his personal Native American religion of sorts. He tells us he doesn’t want to talk about his religion, which I guess is a way of letting us know that his religion is the major theme in this book.

When Donald finishes, three others characters, each very close to Donald, take over, neatly dividing the book into four short-ish parts. These later show more sections don’t have the same power as Donald’s sections, but they do have their own appeal. David, Donald’s brother-in-law, stands out. “David is that rare type who on waking from a night’s sleep or his multiple daily naps has to reconstitute the world. Last year he told me that he has cognitive problems wherein on waking he’s not sure the world actually exists. He’s unsure until he consciously rehearses his senses.” And his section is brilliant.

All in all this is actually a feel good book. Its fun and thoughtful, a book about life. It’s also a book about religion, albeit a non-organized Native American religion; and, it’s manipulated to the religion's benefit, something that bothered me a bit and confuses my response to the book. But, I enjoyed reading it and would read another book by Harrison

2009
http://www.librarything.com/topic/54129#1076070 show less

I hadn't read Harrison before, but I would be happy to read him again. He has a comfortable way of telling a story. It's a little convoluted sometimes, but still riveting. This novel read very much as if the story was being told by someone sitting in the room with you reciting an oral history. And that was the premise of the story - the characters narrated a story and then it was written down as a family history (at least for parts of it).

The only real gripe I have is the similarity between a number of the characters' names making it a little hard to keep track of who was who.

An enjoyable Jim Harrison read, although the uninitiated should be forewarned: Harrison has his unique writing still. Returning to Earth consists of hearing four voices, all telling a portion of a story about their lives, with Donald being the common thread. As realistic people telling a story, they jump around in their narrative, chase rabbits that result in dead ends, and can't help but reporting on what they are feeling or observing as they tell their story. Also, their are a lot of characters, so you might find yourself asking "now who is that person again?" With all its flaws and quirks, I still liked it.

So many deep, powerful passages on love, loss, grief, family. A lot packed into this slim novel. I became a fan of Jim Harrison's writing after reading Legends of the Fall and this book ranks right up there. Lots of passages marked in my copy of the book!