True North

Oct 01, 2012 Colleen O'Neill Conlan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

So good! I find myself very drawn to Harrison's writing and storytelling. This is different from the three novellas in Legends of the Fall. With those there was a beautiful remote distance in the telling, while this first-person narration feels more intimate.

Here, young David Burkett IV, coming from a family with great wealth on both sides, takes it as his life's mission to understand and fully examine how his forbears, land barons who logged and mined in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, exploi...more So good! I find myself very drawn to Harrison's writing and storytelling. This is different from the three novellas in Legends of the Fall. With those there was a beautiful remote distance in the telling, while this first-person narration feels more intimate.

Here, young David Burkett IV, coming from a family with great wealth on both sides, takes it as his life's mission to understand and fully examine how his forbears, land barons who logged and mined in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, exploited and decimated hundreds of thousands of acres of pristine land. Some of this is research done in historical societies across the region, but that happens more "offstage" while the bulk of what he calls his "project" involves walking the land and seeing the results of all those years of logging.

Parallel to this is his coming to terms with his father, a member of the idle class who seems to spend the family money, travel with his Yale cronies, and hang out at "the Club" with other offspring of the "Robber Baron" generation. He's a full-blown alcoholic who has the same privileged sense of entitlement as the earlier Burketts, but with a more personal, sinister twist. It could be said the elder Burketts raped the land while the father simply rapes. At one point David calls the men in his lineage "alpha predators" and the description in apt on several levels. His father's wealth and family name allow him to walk away from several legal binds (what he refers to as "foibles), but this being a Jim Harrison story, some form of restitution is sure to eventually follow.

Harrison is a very "male" writer, and if I had a dollar for every time his main character mentions his dick or his erection, I could buy three more Harrison hardcover books, at least. But it's his narrator's relationships with the female characters that resonate for me. His sister Cynthia is a strong-willed, take-no-bull girl who clocks her father with a garden rake (you'll learn why later in the book) and effectively cuts her father from her life. Other women: Laurie, his sister's friend and someone he's with to the end; Vernice, a poet he hopes to keep, and who he shares his project with; Vera, the young daughter of Jesse, his father's WWII buddy and all-around assistant; Riva, his uncle's no-nonsense sometime girlfriend; and his mother, a woozy pillhead at the start of the story who finds her true sense of motherhood late, but not too late. David loves them all and carries his love throughout the book. There is also a wonderful image, a "great mother" of a tree stump among acres of tree stumps, that the author and his narrator return to in the book. I loved this very powerful and very female image; it seems to become a kind of touchstone for David.

My only quibble, and it's minor, is that sometimes the chronology gets confusing. Harrison sometimes zigs and zags in time, and it's not always clear when we're still in a flashback or when we've emerged into the present. I few times I had to page back to orient myself. But his beautiful language, never false or over-written, wins me over again and again.

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Aug 07, 2012 William rated it 3 of 5 stars

Read this a couple of years ago and it took a while....maybe if I had read it faster....rather dark. Different from other Harrison books....main character is obsessed with introspection:
from Goodreads
True North is the story of a family torn apart and a man engaged in profound reckoning with the damage scarred into the American soil. The scion of a family of wealthy timber barons, David Burkett has grown up with a father who is a malevolent force more than a father, and a mother made vague and n...more

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Jul 30, 2012 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, coming-of-age, sexuality, nature, environment, ecology, michigan, child-abuse

A disturbing yet satisfying read. As with all Harrison fiction (this is my sixth), you are immersed in the painful moral struggles of his protagonist, in this case the life long journey of David to come to terms with the evils of his ancestors and father. They made their money clearcutting vast areas of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and his father became an alcoholic and sexual predator. David has a good heart, but finds no clear pathway to make amends or forge a healthy family of his own. Instead...more

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May 08, 2012 Carl Brush rated it 2 of 5 stars

I’ve done it again, I think. I’ve probably missed out and misjudged. Jim Harrison seems to be an author of some note and some longevity. His books have been responsible for a couple of movies, one of which (Legends of the Fall) I’ve heard of, though not seen. However, I’d never heard of either True North, nor of Jim Harrison till my neighbor dropped the novel on my porch. What’s more, judging by this book, I’m not inclined to explore the his work further.
We join our protagonist, David Burkett...more I’ve done it again, I think. I’ve probably missed out and misjudged. Jim Harrison seems to be an author of some note and some longevity. His books have been responsible for a couple of movies, one of which (Legends of the Fall) I’ve heard of, though not seen. However, I’d never heard of either True North, nor of Jim Harrison till my neighbor dropped the novel on my porch. What’s more, judging by this book, I’m not inclined to explore the his work further.
We join our protagonist, David Burkett (“...fourth in a line of David Burketts beginning in the 1860s when my great-grandfather emigrated from Cornwall, England, to the upper Peninsula of Michigan which forms the southern border of Lake Superior, that vast inland sea of freshwater .”), or rather he joins himself, at age 18 to begin telling us the story of his years from then till “now” at approximately age thirty-five. After a rather baffling, and to my mind unnecessary, prologue, we wend our way through Burkett’s life in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. That life is filled with enormous angst and guilt over his timber-baron ancestors’ exploitation and desecration of the north woods, its natives, and its working folk. That exploitation has left him with means to live independently, and he can’t stand it.
He embarks on a project to write a grand expose of and apology for his family’s misdeeds. It’s obvious the grand design will never come to pass. Burkett is so mentally and emotionally unstable, wanders so aimlessly through life and loves, that anything he accomplishes will be purely by accident. He somehow becomes intensely involved with five females, one of whom is a dog (how pathetic is that?), and casually involved with a number of others. What the women (except the dog) find attractive about him is hard to fathom. Maybe he stimulates the maternal instinct or something. Whatever the case, I found little or nothing to admire about this sad sack except his moral idealism, which is whiny, flaccid, badly in need of viagra.
The narrative of True North wanders as much as the thoughts, emotions, and actions of its narrator, so I never got truly caught up in the tale. There was a great deal of polemic (always a bad sign), even more tell-not-show, and enough incomprehensible two-bit philosophy to drown a duck:
I thought that the natural world wasn’t meant to be soothing which was only an abstraction. People were nature too and it was schizophrenic to try to separate them from what we ordinarily though of as nature. When you allowed your view of the world to vastly expand the questions expanded with it.
and so on.
Nevertheless, the guy’s been a long-time commercial and literary success, so I’m sure I’m missing something. That happens a lot.
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Dec 03, 2010 Brian rated it 3 of 5 stars

"My father had closed the windows to the world and I was spending my life struggling to open them." So goes the story of David Burkett, a U.P. native struggling to come to terms with his family's history, his father's perverted transgressions, and his own place in the big picture.

True North begins with a three-quarters page italicized prologue that feels right away like an (the?) ending. Occurring in the dawn hours after an awful act of violence, the short scene is sad, disturbing, and quite pos...more "My father had closed the windows to the world and I was spending my life struggling to open them." So goes the story of David Burkett, a U.P. native struggling to come to terms with his family's history, his father's perverted transgressions, and his own place in the big picture.

True North begins with a three-quarters page italicized prologue that feels right away like an (the?) ending. Occurring in the dawn hours after an awful act of violence, the short scene is sad, disturbing, and quite possibly the most powerful page I've ever read. Really.

It's too bad, then, that the first half of the novel fails to deliver on the promise of the prologue. Though arranged quite linearly in three parts - The 60s, The 70s, and The 80s - I often felt out of focus and a tad uncertain due to Harrison's penchant for wandering - rather fluidly, I'll admit - back and forth between present and past and future. Too, the wanderings are quite often rendered in a passive voice which bleed off any sense of energy and urgency that has developed. A more sophisticated reader with critic credentials will certainly see the literary logic in such maneuvers (for Harrison is regarded as a master, so he must have done this on purpose), but I aint a sophisticated reader.

The second half of the novel begins to make up for the first. As the story progresses into and through The 80s the scenes begin to acquire a subtle energy, a solid sense of "in the moment", mainly because they are allowed to develop without too much interference from passive returns to the past. You begin to feel the novel rolling along as David comes to understand more and more where he is, who he is, and what he must do to reconcile it all. Nearly two-thirds of the way in I began thinking of the prologue, began wondering if that is what the novel was building to. I won't spoil anything here at all (though I guess one could always flip ahead to the end to see for themselves), but the thought will most definitely be in your mind, and it will keep you turning the page with a sad sense of dread.

David Burkett's friends and family never quite materialize as characters the way he does. As often as some of them appear there's always the sense they are an arm's length away from being fully developed. Perhaps this is a flaw in the novel. Or perhaps it is an intentional move by Harrison to convey the emotional distance David places between himself and the outside world, despite his best intentions otherwise. You decide.

True North isn't uplifting. It isn't oppressive or depressing, either. It's like life - quite often uncertain, but always heading toward something. A shaky beginning, a strong ending: three stars for Jim Harrison's True North.

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Feb 07, 2010 Paul Aslanian rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is my first book by Jim Harrison. He is a highly decorated contemporary writer having won many national prises, but I had never heard for him.

This book is about a third or fourth genration family which since the grandfathers have not had to do a stich of work. The family make their killing on both lumber and mining in Upper Michigan in the 19 and early 20th century. The main charater is the son, DAvid, who at the beginning of the story is about 14. This kid is being raised (or merely exists...more This is my first book by Jim Harrison. He is a highly decorated contemporary writer having won many national prises, but I had never heard for him.

This book is about a third or fourth genration family which since the grandfathers have not had to do a stich of work. The family make their killing on both lumber and mining in Upper Michigan in the 19 and early 20th century. The main charater is the son, DAvid, who at the beginning of the story is about 14. This kid is being raised (or merely exists in) an incredibly dysfuntional family. The father is a drunk, a womanizer, a pretty useless guy.

The book provides an insight into a "hign Class" family which looks so much different from the outside vs the way it really is. Anyway, David, is sort of a loser. He wants to write a tome about the guilt of his family. In the process he spends many years up in the UP doing research on this book which is going to expose this family to the real guilt/shame they deserve. He is totally focused on this goal. So his personal life is pretty shabby a brief marriage, an effort at formal education at Mich State. His inability to get very far in a relationship with women he cares for, although he does get a fair amount of active with waitresses and the like. Many one night stands. One of the other sins of his father other than merely having been born into this very wealthy family is the father's rape of the Mexican gardener's 14 year old daughter who ends up pregnant (she is up in MI to visit her father returning to Mexico shortly after the old fart rapes her).
Again, David, takes in on him self to atone for his father's sins--which he does not accomplish.

Toward the end of the book, which I think is exceptionally well written, David begins to realize that he can't allow his contempt for his family and especially his father be the focus of his life. That focus, which is all negative, will only tear him down. But, on the other hand, we never know whether he moves on to a more successful life.

I would love to have on of you read it just to compare notes after you have read it. I have it if you would like to take a stab at it.

Thanks,
PJA

Will you please tell me if you get this review--thanks, PJA(less)

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May 03, 2011 Robert Vander rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this at the perfect time which is to say after having read several volumes of his novellas, it was helpful to have a meaningful understanding of the themes that seem to concern Mr. harrison. Harrison strikes me as a special writer in terms of a particular kindness to his readers. He always intends delivers the goods to his readers in the form of a dynamic narrative. His stories are variously entertaining, his characters I certainly find endearing. Supporting his narrative is a lot of hard...more

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Jan 07, 2010 Tim Lepczyk rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: midwest, contemporary-fiction, michigan, drags-like-an-anchor-in-the-water, good-at-first-loses-flavor-like-gum, great-idea-poor-execution, mediocre-as-a-frozen-pizza, needs-an-editor, not-as-good-as-everyone-says, brown

Writing is about making choices. We choose what to write about, from whose perspective to tell a story, and what we want our audience to take away from the narrative. In looking at, True North, let's examine the choices Harrison made. He chose this novel to be in the first person. The events are narrated by, David Burkett, the wealthy son from a family that logged and mined the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for three generations. Why use first person for this novel? What does it achieve?

First pers...more Writing is about making choices. We choose what to write about, from whose perspective to tell a story, and what we want our audience to take away from the narrative. In looking at, True North, let's examine the choices Harrison made. He chose this novel to be in the first person. The events are narrated by, David Burkett, the wealthy son from a family that logged and mined the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for three generations. Why use first person for this novel? What does it achieve?

First person narration shields the reader from the other characters in the novel. While the narrative may be about, Burkett, trying to understand his ancestors and make amends for the evils he believes they've brought upon the land, stripping away natural resources and bleeding their labor force in equal measure, it is really about, Burkett, the man, or Burkett, the shadow of man, trying to find his own stride against that of his father's. If this novel were in third person, the reader might end up sympathizing for some of the other characters. They couldn't be as evil unless they are seen through Burkett's skewed perspective. Of course, Burkett's father is a terrible man known for having sex with underage girls, sometimes consensually while other times forced. His terrible nature could still be represented in the third person, but it would be difficult to make him as evil as Burkett believes him to be.

The topic of the novel seems like it could be interesting. I'm from Northern Michigan, so there was a connection between me and the Upper Peninsula. However, while the narrator is writing a history of the logging industry, we never really see it and the story focuses exclusively on Burkett's relationship with the history. This process of writing for the narrator dominates his life for twenty years, in which he spends his time guiltily living off his family's wealth, wandering the woods, fishing, trolling the surface of Christianity, having sex with women, and feeling disconnected. Perhaps, this could be interesting, but Burkett is a bland narrator, and his story and obsessions come across as mediocre and whiny. As a reader, I found myself unable to sympathize or identify with Burkett. He's petulant. He's weak. If he's an idealist, then it is negated by his utter passivity. What does he risk in the novel? When does he grow? The novel moves from the 60's through the 70's and then the 80's. But the reader never gets a sense of time really moving. The decades seem of little consequence, except that Harrison can no longer use the casual sex of the late 60's as an excuse for Burkett's sexual romps. Burkett, while in his late 30's seems to be the same as when he was in his 20's.

This brings up my last question. What is the audience supposed to take away from this novel? Does the narrator overcome his father? Do we see enough of a change that it pays off? Is the investment of roughly 400 pages of prose worth the ending? Personally, I found very little to take away. In an earlier post, I'd written how I continued to read this book because I couldn't fall asleep and didn't want to get out of bed and dig up a new book at 2 A.M. Not exactly a gun to the head, but not a ringing endorsement either. Worst of all, the ending seems tacked on. As if Harrison realized there was something dramatic lacking from the novel. It's dramatic, but we've seen that on the first page, and it comes hundreds of pages too late.

One thing I found interesting is Harrison's stab at meta-fiction. On page 340, Burkett's sometime lover who is a poet gives him some advice regarding the history he is writing. She says, "Figure it out for yourself. If you can't you'll always write shit. You're dog-paddling in too much material. Start over. Give me a hundred clean pages called 'What My People Did,' or something like that. You're trying to be a nineteenth-century curmudgeon. You're starting twelve thousand years ago with the glaciers then moving slowly onward like a fucking crippled toad. Get over the glaciers in one page, please. You quoted that beautiful prose of Agassiz. Try to understand why it's beautiful and your prose isn't. You wrote nicely in those thirteen pages because you forgot yourself and your thousand post-rationalizations and let your material emerge directly and intimately."
Perhaps, this is Burkett the narrator commenting or Harrison himself in the following passage. Whoever it is speaking, it seems to be a proper response to the novel.

"I had pressed my thumb on the dorsal fin of a trout and now watched a raindrop of blood ooze out. I had asked for this speech and been roundly whipped by a schoolmarm. All these years after the inception and I had thirteen golden pages."
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Nov 15, 2012 Stefani rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: classic-americana, midwestern-fiction, outdoorsy

As of late, I've been noticing a strange sight in NYC—the appearance of many bushily-bearded men, clad in woolen plaid lumberjack shirts, their pants held up by suspenders as they saunter through the urban wilderness that is Brooklyn waiting to fell a tree or, perhaps, to whittle a trinket for a lovely lady, should the mood strike them. They can often be found in the local watering hole that specializes in artisanal beers or attempting to start a campfire in the park while simultaneously being h...more As of late, I've been noticing a strange sight in NYC—the appearance of many bushily-bearded men, clad in woolen plaid lumberjack shirts, their pants held up by suspenders as they saunter through the urban wilderness that is Brooklyn waiting to fell a tree or, perhaps, to whittle a trinket for a lovely lady, should the mood strike them. They can often be found in the local watering hole that specializes in artisanal beers or attempting to start a campfire in the park while simultaneously being harassed by the homeless population for enroaching on their turf. What a bunch of urban whistle punks.

True North is the opposite of the faux-rustic trendiness that's plaguing the NYC boroughs, taking place in the rugged corner of Michigan known as the Upper Peninsula or "UP." It's the story of the scion of a wealthy timber family whose dysfunctional upbringing causes him to reject not only the moneyed class privilege he grew up with but the methods by which that wealth was acquired. His father—a morally repugnant sexual offender who exclusively preys on underage girls—seems to glide through life with ease, buffered by his ability to pay his way out of nearly every transgression. As David, the son, drifts aimlessly through life, he gradually realizes that the anger and hostility he feels toward his father is holding him hostage.

One thing that I think that's worth mentioning is how the theme of solitude is treated here. I think all too often in literature the solitary character is meant to invoke the reader's pity and sympathy...generally, we're supposed to feel sorry for someone who chooses to spend their time alone because it couldn't possibly be a choice they willingly made, but one that was made for them based on some abnormality or personality quirk. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule. The lone cowboy on the plains of some dust-ridden prairie or an adventurer scouting uncharted territory would seem to inspire more of a rugged individualism than be an object of scorn.

Here, the loneliness of one man is drowned out by the largesse of the landscape. He is no longer an individual, he is a small part of a much larger universe.(less)

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Apr 07, 2012 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

Another fantastic, meditative book from probably my favorite living writer. The novel begins with a crazy italicized intro, then launches into the story of a young boy's quest to make sense of his crazy family. The first hundred-fifty pages or so are the best, until David, the protagonist, goes off on his own and we get the typical meandering, near-plotless Harrison stuff, aside from David's "project," a purported manuscript about evils of his father/grandfather/etc. It's all great, though David...more

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May 01, 2012 Alene rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

This was a great story, a little gloomy, but so well told, that I just loved it. Its so interesting not only the things we choose to take on in this life, but our ways of going about it as well. Sometimes we take on burdens that aren't ours because we feel like we have to or we actually believe they are ours. And we get so accustomed to being the way we are that it's extremely difficult to change.

The characterization was wonderful, though I would certainly hope to not be any of the characters i...more

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Jan 19, 2010 Drew rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was the first book that I read of Harrison's, back when I was 24 (I bought it for the title as I'm a native of Northern Michigan). It took a while to get used to the writing but was a literary watershed for me; Harrison is now, by far, my favorite author. I agree that a lot of the plot elements occur early but the plot is secondary to how it affects Burkett. If some of those elements occurred later, we couldn't see how fully they integrate themselves into his life and perception of life. I'...more

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Feb 05, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine added it

"True North," says the Boston Globe, "has its moments," which sums up general reaction to this novel. Almost everyone found something to like, be it the passionate narration or the novel's strong sense of place. However, most reviewers also found serious flaws. While some praised Harrison's writing, a few pointed out its sloppiness. And nearly all were frustrated with the novel's structure, complaining that Harrison reveals key events too early and allows the story to founder as Burkett painstak

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Nov 09, 2009 Tom rated it 3 of 5 stars

True North is a beautiful and moving novel that speaks to the territory in our hearts that calls us back to our roots. The scion of a family of wealthy timber barons, David Burkett has grown up with a father who is a malevolent force, and a mother made vague and numb by alcohol and pills. He and his sister Cynthia, a firecracker who scandalizes the family at fourteen by taking up with the son of their Finnish-Native American gardener, are mostly left to make their own way. As David comes to adul...more

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Aug 08, 2010 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-catagorical

I was loaned "True North" by an anthropologist friend of mine. The book is outside my "comfort zone" when compared to what I normally read. It's the story of a man that is struggling with his personal as well as family history as near as I can tell. I'm only a handful of pages in. I'll fill you in more when I finish.

I have just finished the book and I am not sure how I feel about it. I was a good book, at least I didn't tire of reading it, but I never found myself truly liking the protagonist (D...more

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Dec 27, 2012 Susan Coleman rated it 4 of 5 stars

Something I really liked about this book, beyond the really lovely descriptions of Michigan's Upper Peninsula's natural landscape, was the first person voice. So often I found myself thinking, "This character is divulging more about who he really is through his lack of understanding of himself than I would get if this were a third-person narration." Harrison did an amazing job of creating a character, whose search for a sense of self is made more clear to the reader through his utter lack of suc...more

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Aug 01, 2011 Anthony added it · review of another edition

I was a non-reader for years. When I first started reading again I figured that I wanted to stick mainly to the "classics," philosophy, and other non-fiction texts. For the most part this has remained true, but this was my first new venture out of either of those three categories. I saw the book at the local place (on a table with other Jim Harrison books, since he's a Michigan author), and decided I wanted to read it.

I liked it. Maybe it's the familiar northern Michigan towns and landscape, or...more

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May 06, 2009 Vivian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Interesting picture of the thoughts, feelings, dreams, and obsessions of a David Burkett, a young man whose father and 2 previous generations were instrumental in the removal of huge forests in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He is guilt ridden by this and his father's numerous rapes of young girls among other major mistreatment of the people who work for him. David spends many years investigating the loss of all the trees and how and what his family's involvement had been. He is close with his...more

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Mar 17, 2010 Elizabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars

True North is the story of a family torn apart and a man engaged in profound reckoning with the damage scarred into the American soil. The scion of a family of wealthy timber barons, David Burkett has grown up with a father who is a malevolent force more than a father, and a mother made vague and numb by alcohol and pills. He and his sister, Cynthia, a firecracker who scandalizes the family at fourteen by taking up with the son of their Finnish-Native American gardener, are mostly left to make t...more

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Sep 15, 2008 Ember DeBoer rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Rachel

I don't even know how to begin writing a review for this book. I guess I'll give it a whirl, anyway...I wanted to read it, first and foremost, because of the Upper Peninsula setting and storyline. And I think that is what kept me reading in the early chapters, when I struggled through Harrison's prose. Reading his writing definitely takes some getting used to. There is a definite lack of punctuation, which leads to long, run-on sentences that can be hard to digest all at once. At the beginning,...more

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May 24, 2008 Neesha rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Jim Harrison fans but not most others

Shelves: contemporary-lit

I really wanted to love this book because it takes place in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (a place I love) and I had heard good things about the author. But I just couldn't give it more than three stars...and here's the main reasons why this book gets an average rating.

1. The character development is superb, and Harrison writes people so well without even trying. The main character describes himself as a more self-aware, mature Holden Caulfield at one point, and I was thinking the same thing l...more

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Jun 29, 2011 Heidiheskett rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was rich in the history of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and the perceived devastation that occurred as a result of aggressive logging in the 20's and 30's. I found it very enjoyable to read about places I love and have been in a different time. I did occassionally find it difficult to follow as the main character was often melancholy in ways that were difficult to relate to. The story also wasn't told in a linear fashion, but jumped about through time as the author felt appropriate. Ther...more

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Jul 21, 2010 C.E. rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've always wanted to read Harrison and took this one up on the recommendation of a former student. Nice choice as it is an excellent, heartfelt and often funny coming-of-age story about a young man trying to come to terms with the problems of his wealthy but eccentrically dysfunctional family in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. If the last 50 or so pages are something of a letdown, that's a small price to pay for an otherwise great read that should be a hit with fans of Richard Russo's early work.

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Jan 03, 2008 Dan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Jim Harrison is one of my favorite writers, but this novel seemed to explore territory that was all too familiar from his other works——not a bad thing, but not a good sign of what's to come as Jim gets into the later innings of his life. This book is about an old-money family in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, sex, food, travel, history, and nature, all of which are familiar elements of Harrison's work. I'll next be reading "Returning To Earth," which is a sequel of sorts to this book and repor...more

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Oct 20, 2012 Brandon Kelly rated it 5 of 5 stars

I am not one to memorize lines from anything. Not Shakespeare, not the Bible, not anything! However, the one line that I have committed to memory comes from this book:

"I always found peculiar my fathers propensity to lie even when nothing was at stake."

It's lines like that, which are peppered throughout this masterpiece, that prove that Jim Harrison is a master.

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Nov 26, 2012 Andy Miller rated it 4 of 5 stars

A novel whose narrator was born into an old money family and spends his life coming to grips with his belief that the family money was based on exploitation of both the environment and the people who worked for the company.

One device I like was that each section started with a chapter that described where he was in his life and the remaining chapters in that section told of how he got there.

I enjoyed the different characters and the complexities of each with the exception of the father, who is...more

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Oct 27, 2008 Bryn rated it 4 of 5 stars

A good book by what I hope to be the first of my readings from Harrison. The ending was dissapointing, however upon thinking about it I realized it was this dissapointment that made it so conclusive and really added another aspect to the story overall.
There was too much sex in the story, and the authors view on religion was neither bad nor good but rather tossed aside as an after thought which bugged me. Religion is necessary, either the hate or love of God drives most lives- apathy is short liv...more

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Feb 23, 2010 Lauren Albert rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

This didn't quite cohere for me. The character didn't cohere for me either. The relationships between the characters, the obsession of the narrator with his family's past, the ending--none of these quite worked for me (didn't feel "true" somehow). The writing wasn't as good as in Harrison's other books that I've read.

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Dec 22, 2009 Jennie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have always wanted to go to the U.P. (I feel like a traitor-Michigander for not making it there yet), and now I absolutely cannot wait until the summer to go.
If you think you or your family has problems, read this novel - it'll change your mind. The ending is one of the best and most twisted I have ever come across.

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Dec 18, 2012 Lutzka Zivny rated it 4 of 5 stars

This books is fantastic. OK, it could have been shorter, it gets tiny bit repetitive, and one does wishes the narrator would cowboy up a bit, but who cares? Harrison's prose cuddles one up with such woodsy melancholy one can barely hold back from running to the wilderness in hope of locating the Truth and the Perfect Fishing Hole.

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/107419.True_North?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1171571661l/107419.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/107419.True_North?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]True North by Jim Harrison[/url]

True North

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