Warlock
by Jim Harrison
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As a Boy Scout, Johnny Lundgren was given the nickname Warlock. Now, at forty-two years of age, Johnny has decided to take up that moniker again. It might be an odd name for an unemployed business executive living in Traverse City, Michigan. But perhaps it fits his new job working for an eccentric doctor as a personal trouble-shooter and private investigator. Warlock suddenly finds himself on a range of bizarre assignments-everything from battling poachers in the haunted wilderness of show more northern Michigan to investigating his employer's wife and son in the seamy underside of Key West. A comedy with one foot in the abyss, Warlock is "a rich and sparkling novel" by one of America's most critically acclaimed authors. "Contemporary macho in a funhouse a hybrid born out of Faulkner's dark hero of Satoris and all the Buster Keaton comedy that we love."-Los Angeles Herald Examiner. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
"Sometimes the only answer to death is lunch."
With that sentence, you know you're squarely in a Jim Harrison novel, in the territory of food, sex, and Big Questions navigated by his strangely obtuse protagonists. Also, you're missing the comma you'd expect after "sometimes," a rhythmic tic that's also typical of Harrison's writing. But Warlock isn't an entirely typical Harrison novel.
Harrison's novels, and especially his recent novels (True North, Returning to Earth, The English Major) tend to be muted, low-key affairs in which there's not much action but a great deal of language. In early novellas such as Legends of the Fall or Revenge, there's no shortage of action, but the action is realistic. Warlock is something of an exception, a show more larger-than-life tale which casts Lundgren as a gun-toting "troubleshooter" in the service of the eccentric inventor Dr. Rabun, whose home is guarded by lethal dogs.
It's the stuff of childish adventure stories, and it makes for a wild ride. Lundgren, indeed, is a childish man. Take his name, "Johnny," or the fact that he prefers the nickname "Warlock," bestowed on him during a childhood boy-scout camping trip. Take his habit of calling urine "pee-pee." Take, finally, the way he revels in his undercover job with its games of secrecy and its atmosphere of high drama. He's going to have to grow out of it. There's a plot twist waiting in the wings, of course, to force him to do just that.
Warlock is funny, original, and high-spirited. Worth reading. show less
With that sentence, you know you're squarely in a Jim Harrison novel, in the territory of food, sex, and Big Questions navigated by his strangely obtuse protagonists. Also, you're missing the comma you'd expect after "sometimes," a rhythmic tic that's also typical of Harrison's writing. But Warlock isn't an entirely typical Harrison novel.
Harrison's novels, and especially his recent novels (True North, Returning to Earth, The English Major) tend to be muted, low-key affairs in which there's not much action but a great deal of language. In early novellas such as Legends of the Fall or Revenge, there's no shortage of action, but the action is realistic. Warlock is something of an exception, a show more larger-than-life tale which casts Lundgren as a gun-toting "troubleshooter" in the service of the eccentric inventor Dr. Rabun, whose home is guarded by lethal dogs.
It's the stuff of childish adventure stories, and it makes for a wild ride. Lundgren, indeed, is a childish man. Take his name, "Johnny," or the fact that he prefers the nickname "Warlock," bestowed on him during a childhood boy-scout camping trip. Take his habit of calling urine "pee-pee." Take, finally, the way he revels in his undercover job with its games of secrecy and its atmosphere of high drama. He's going to have to grow out of it. There's a plot twist waiting in the wings, of course, to force him to do just that.
Warlock is funny, original, and high-spirited. Worth reading. show less
Reading through Harrison, this is essentially another romance novel for middle-aged men. He does take an Elmore Leonard type turn with the Florida mafia at the end to mix things up, which was fun. Lotta eating and screwing, like usual.
Definitely Harrison with the lack of need for money, food, and the use of the word otiose. Not as full of insights as his later works but on its way. Warlock's character was up and down and developed too rapidly and the old rich guy was a little outrageous. Still, it was Harrison. Just a little less heart felt.
Just another version of the book he has written many times. (Wolf, Farmer, Sundog, . . . ). All great reads. The bitter and sweet on display as told though JH's early life. Always w a bit of his own hope seeping through.
Just another version of the book he has written many times. (Wolf, Farmer, Sundog, . . . ). All great reads. The bitter and sweet on display as told though JH's early life. Always w a bit of his own hope seeping through.
It is positively astonishing to read someone who writes so very well, and about subject matter that's not even close to a PG rating. Disturbing and lyrical all wrapped up together.
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81+ Works 11,877 Members
James Thomas Harrison was born on December 11, 1937 in Grayling, Michigan. After receiving a B.A. in comparative literature from Michigan State University in 1960 and a M.A. in comparative literature from the same school in 1964, he briefly taught English at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. During his lifetime, he wrote 14 show more collections of poetry, 21 volumes of fiction, two books of essays, a memoir, and a children's book. His collections of poetry included Plain Song, The Theory and Practice of Rivers, Songs of Unreason, and Dead Man's Float. He received a Guggenheim fellowship for his poetry in 1969. His essays on food, much of which first appeared in Esquire, was collected in the 2001 book, The Raw and the Cooked. His memoir, Off to the Side, was published in 2002. His first novel, Wolf, was published in 1971. His other works of fiction included A Good Day to Die, Farmer, The Road Home, Julip, and The Ancient Minstrel. His novel, Legends of the Fall, was adapted into a feature film starring Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt. Harrison wrote the screenplay for the movie. His novel, Dalva, was adapted as a made-for-television movie starring Rod Steiger and Farrah Fawcett. He died on March 26, 2016 at the age of 78. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Is contained in
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Warlock
- Original publication date
- 1981
- Epigraph
- [Part I]
. . . I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was; man is but an ass, if he go about to expound this dream. . . . The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of m... (show all)an hath not seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was.
. . . It shall be called "Bottom's Dream," because it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the latter end of a play . . . to make the more gracious, I shall sing it at her death.
WM. SHAKESPEARE
A Midsummer-Night's Dream
act 4, scene 1
[Part II]
There is an imagination below the earth that abounds in animal forms, that revels and makes music.
JAMES HILLMAN
The Dream and the Underworld
[Part III]
Ah, they must be seen, the masks people wear under our great opalescent skies, and when they walk and move, daubed with cruel colors, wretched and pitiful under the rain, bowing and fawning terrified figures ... (show all)at once insolent and timid, growling or yapping, with shrill falsetto voices or loud metallic voices, with the heads of macabre beasts and the unexpected, unsubdued gestures of irritated animals. Repulsive humanity ever on the move in cast-off clothes shimmering with spangles torn from the mask of the moon. Then I saw things in a big way and my heartbeat quickened and my bones trembled, and I divined the enormity of these distortions and anticipated the modern spirit. A new world loomed up before me.
JAMES ENSOR - Dedication
- To Bob Datilla
- First words
- Seven years came and went.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)There was no real reason to doubt it, he thought, turning around.
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