Wolf: A False Memoir

I read the Brown Dog books too - I think that's the only other Harrison novel(s) that I've read. Wolf certainly fits the same pattern. I'm guessing that Wolf was written earlier - the machinery is a bit more visible. He confesses here to some of his reading, his influences. Henry Miller stands out, which I find satisfying because Harrison's writing strikes me as quite similar to Miller. Of course Harrison in up in the U.P. where Miller, well, I can't imagine! But my family's roots are up around there so I like that aspect.

I was reading this while riding the bus and at one point I just burst out laughing. The thing is constantly over the top, which could easily get tiresome, but Harrison makes it so colorful that it stays fresh and fun. show more The whole thing is crude from start to finish, but somehow stays tender too. This is the Henry Miller angle. Good stuff! show less

Curious book. Not sure what to make of it. I liked it. A memoir, of sorts, by the author of Legends of the Fall. I had not read any of his work previously but picked this up used primarily on the strength of the movie made from Legends.

A memoir, likely with a significant amount of truth in the wrapping of fiction, describing early adulthood from a point ten to fifteen years down the road, frequently moving back-and-forth between past and present. I enjoyed the book, although it will not be for everyone. Will read Harrison again.

Harrison's first novel is a series of ruminations on different nights, with different girls or no girl at all, in different cities. These are framed by the protagonist's stretch in the Michigan wilderness on the tracks of an elusive wolf. For his first novel, Harrison's own voice is remarkably present, but not definitive. This is somewhere halfway between Kerouac and Miller, with boots planted in forest soil. Thoreau with a pint of whiskey and a shit eating grin. It's not derivative, it evades that with great humor and unique personality. The present and unique voice of Harrison, however, only hints at the resonance and mastery that it might later possess. Investigation of his later novels is necessary and eagerly anticipated.

JH's first novel. Loaded w what was to become his main stays, forests of the UP, travel, memory, and characters w no need of money. Full of phrases and words rarely used but used well here. A man remembers his life, which is at least partly Harrison's, while trying to get his present under control. Always a well written slice of life. Have read all of his books but this is the most recent. Am now starting into his poetry.
Above was from my first read from 15 years ago. I needed more than a good plot and a detective murder mystery so I read a JH. This is his Kerouacian ode to his time as a young man on the road, juxtaposed with drying out on a camping/fishing/wolf scouting trip to the UP. Thinly fictionalized events, mostly not very tied show more together, forming his life and a sturdy base of experience. I will read others again as well. show less

This is Jim Harrison's first novel, surely based on his own life. It alternates between accounts of a week-long camping trek in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and accounts of various adventures (all involving sex with women) in his earlier years. Some of this book is wordplay but mostly it stays together and is coherent. The woods with minimal camping gear can be delightful, awful, frightening, peaceful, wonderful, soothing, exhausting, boring.... Mostly, he loves being away from people. He hopes to see a wolf. He sneaks up on an osprey nest, he fishes, he thinks of food, women, alcohol...he remembers his sister and father who were killed in a car accident. He walks long distances and recounts days in NYC and California and his home in show more lower Michigan where he was a child and young man. On every page there are exquisite sentences, lovely ways of telling. But also there are sentences of sex that get tedious and of little interest except as a curious glimpse into the author's preoccupation with women as sexual conquests, or maybe it isn't that at all. Maybe, it is just that eating, drinking, reading, learning, travelling, having sex, feeling fear in the dark of night in a flimsy tent in bear country, hoping to catch a trout, being acutely aware of surroundings, remembering the way without a map, castigating pretentious people, and respecting non-pretentious people, and writing about it all is just what he does...no one thing more important than the other. I just never think Jim Harrison is self-conscious about his writing. He just does it, because he can and he has to. show less

Wolf isn't a very likable fellow, I am glad I didn't read this when I was younger - perhaps the assholism is catching. It is a young man's novel in the shadows of Hemingway or Kerouac.

Harrison's first novel is a "false memoir" by a latter-day Thoreau, who has gone back to the land in northern Michigan. Carol Swanson is a 33-year-old recluse who has left an unhappy life in New York to return to the rural Midwest of his youth. Prowling the forests for a glimpse of wolves by day, Swanson recalls the aimlessness of his early years and tries to discover some order in the haphazard pattern of his life.