Jean Thompson
One of the pleasures of reading Jim Harrison's fifth collection of novellas is the reminder that this intermediate, unloved and ostensibly unpublishable form is capable of great range and vitality. Novellas must pack all the apparatus of a novel (characters moving through time, sustained action) into a briefer space. In Harrison's case this is an economical 100 pages or so. And ideally, novellas must have something of the short story's precision and the lift that comes from crisp timing and execution. The Summer He Didn't Die meets all these technical requirements, but mostly it succeeds because it is fueled by solid storytelling and by Harrison's characteristic ease as a stylist.
— The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
Three very different and challenging approaches to the novella form Harrison's latest. The title story laconically narrates the struggles of a multiracial, Indian-identified Northern Michigan wood pulp cutter named Brown Dog, a single father with an imprisoned, alcoholic wife. When the state dictates mandatory schooling for his disabled 7-year-old daughter, who suffers from the effects of fetal alcohol syndrome, "B.D." must decide whether to flee with her to Canada. "Republican Wives" presents after-the-affair disquisitions from three women who were the lovers of local university-based poet Daryl, whom one of the women, Martha, has tried to kill with an overdose of Elavil. The final novella, a meandering, partially autobiographical character study called "Tracking," thoroughly inspects the career's worth of baggage that has resulted from life as a white male writer operating in nonmetropolitan middle America. Harrison's command of the novella form is as impressive as the range of his voices, with his prose moving from the interiorized Faulknerian third-person of the title story to the run-on, staccato first-person of the first, and best, of the "Republican Wives." Following on the novel True North, this set of short fictions shifts pitch-perfect perspectives effortlessly, with a lightness that belies its depth. Agent, Bob Dattila at the Phoenix Literary Agency. (Aug.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Three very different novellas make up this latest collection by the author of True North. The title piece, set in Harrison's familiar stomping ground of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, is also the best, an earthy and exuberant tale of good-hearted ne'er-do-well Brown Dog and his attempt to keep his brain-damaged stepdaughter out of a state boarding school while dallying with whatever women may be available in Escanaba. "Republican Wives" ranges further afield, concerning three former sorority sisters, Martha, Frances, and Shirley, who were all once involved with Daryl, a self-absorbed and abusive artist. Told by each woman in turn, the story is set mostly in Mexico, where the now middle-aged Martha flees after attempting to murder Daryl. The autobiographical "Tracking" is hardly a novella but rather a somewhat static reminiscence of the writer's life. Though interesting, it feels out of place here. An appealing if not altogether essential work; purchase for larger fiction collections and wherever Harrison is popular. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 4/15/05.]-Lawrence Rungren, Merrimack Valley Lib. Consortium, Andover, MA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Two novellas and an impressionistic memoir find Harrison in a relaxed mood. Though the author had his breakthrough success in the novella form (Legends of the Fall, 1979), in recent years his shorter fiction has been relatively lightweight, while he saved the heavy artistic lifting for dark novels like True North (2004). This new collection is no exception, though it has touching moments. Brown Dog (B.D.), the feckless Michigan part-Indian who has expressed his creator's insouciant side in several previous outings, returns and actually does some growing up in the title story. B.D. is still pining after his lesbian social worker and happy to indulge the abundant desires of the sexy dentist treating his rotten teeth for free. But two stepchildren acquired from a marriage of convenience (their mom's in jail) have introduced him to the joys of cooking-familiar to all Harrison's readers-and to the necessity of taking responsibility for his actions. A threat to remove seven-year-old Berry, a victim of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, to a special school hundreds of miles away prompts B.D. to once again light out for the territory, but this time he's doing it for someone else. He's gained stature to go with his considerable charm. "Republican Wives" a trifle narrated by three overprivileged friends involved with the same egotistical man, at least showcases the ability to get inside women's heads that's always distinguished Harrison from his muy macho peers. "Tracking" reminds us how much of a misfit the author has always felt himself to be: he's too rooted in the rural pleasures of his native Michigan to be entirely comfortable in the East Coast literary world; yet "life in the north seems a little tooartless, bookless . . . [he has] come to need both." This casual short piece is in many ways a more emotionally truthful self-portrait than the full-length Off to the Side (2002). Harrison's admirers will find minor pleasures here, while waiting for the next novel.
