The Beast God Forgot to Invent
by Jim Harrison
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Jim Harrison is an American master. The Beast God Forgot to Invent offers stories of culture and wildness, of men and beasts and where they overlap. A wealthy man retired to the Michigan woods narrates the tale of a younger man decivilized by brain damage. A Michigan Indian wanders Los Angeles, hobnobbing with starlets and screenwriters while he tracks an ersatz Native-American activist who stole his bearskin. An aging "alpha canine," the author of three dozen throwaway biographies, eats show more dinner with the ex-wife of his overheated youth, and must confront the man he used to be. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
This is a collection of three superb stories.....Harrison has such an incredible command of language. He says so much in a simple sentence....paragraphs are wonders of thought. I love the writers style...and I plan to read his works. I am recommending this book to all my avid reader friends. Jim Harrison is in the league of John Irving.....great American literature.
An uneven trio of novellas from an author proclaimed as an American master in the jacket blurbs. I can't agree, after this book, although I did quite like the middle story, about a an itinerant Indian from Michigan who travels to the mythical land of Los Angeles in search of his stolen bearskin. An intriguing and often clever sendup of Hollywood as seen through the eyes of a true outsider. The other two are less engaging, and often annoying. In both cases, the main character is an older man of letters, self-involved, whiny and noncaring about the needs and feelings of others. Sort of reminds me of John Updyke's Becht character, another one I have no liking for, and no desire to read further about. Not badly written, just no characters show more who redeem the effort of reading about them. show less
Three novella's, The Beast God Forgot to Invent, Westward Ho, and I Forgot to Go to Spain are interesting, entertaining and well written. They show, once again, Harrison's penchant for creating characters that are out of the main stream and often have no regard for money, whether overly rich or overly poor.
Good first sentence: "The danger of civilization, of course, is that you will piss away your life on nonsense." The first three words are italicized for unclear reasons; I mean, I could understand emphasizing "The" or "danger" or even "The danger" but why "of?" Maybe it is just a typo.
Three stories. One "I forgot to go to Spain" deals with rich middle aged New Yorker wo goes through midlife crisis. Style interesting but not anyone you would like to know.
1
I know I've read this but don't seem to remember anything about it, so I'll have to read it again.
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Great American Novels
158 works; 42 members
Author Information
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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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- En route vers l'Ouest
- Original title
- The Beast God Forgot to Invent
- Alternate titles*
- En route vers l'Ouest - La bête que Dieu oublia d'inventer - J'ai oublié d'aller en Espagne; Wesward Ho - The beast God forgot to invent - I forgot to go to Spain
- Original publication date
- 2000 (1e édition originale américaine) (1e édition originale américaine); 2000-04-22 (1e traduction et édition française, Fictives, Christian Bourgeois) (1e traduction et édition française, Fictives, Christian Bourgeois); 2001 (Réédition française, 10/18) (Réédition française, 10/18)
- Publisher's editor*
- Brice Matthieussent (Directeur de collection "Fictives")
- Original language*
- Anglais (Etats-Unis) (Etats-Unis)
- Disambiguation notice*
- Notes :
Contient les 3 nouvelles :
- En route vers l'Ouest
- La bête que Dieu oublia d'inventer
- J'ai oublié d'aller en Espagne
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- Members
- 435
- Popularity
- 70,082
- Reviews
- 6
- Rating
- (3.73)
- Languages
- English, French
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 8
- ASINs
- 4
