My rating:
add to my books
Loading...
A Good Day to Die
by
Jim Harrison
Their plans were conceived in a drunken excitement and resulted in more horror than any of them could have imagined. There was the poet able to retreat into beatific reveries of superb fishing in cold, fast streams; the Vietnam vet consumed by uppers, downers and violence; and the girl who loved only one of them -- at first. With their ideals ostensibly in order, they se...more
Paperback, 180 pages
Published
July 15th 1981
by Delta
(first published 1973)
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
391)
Looks like early Jim Harrison to me; in this one he's still finding his voice. A classic stoners-on-the-road novella; a spaced-out picaresque with heavy doses of largely unfulfilled sexual dreams on the part of the narrator. If you like this type of book, it's not bad, although others are better (try Cormac McCarthey, Denis Johnson, Robert Stone, etc.). Sure, there's a bit about fishing scattered throughout, but don't read it for that reason.
Accepting the motivations...more
Accepting the motivations...more
Pretty good. Beatific. It took me a bit to get into this, as it's somewhat different from Harrison's later/recent stuff. Short, choppy sentences, and often sentence frags. Which bothered me at first. But once I'd spent some time with it, I was good to go. The beginning/early middle of the book is probably, I felt, best read with a one-beer or postcoital buzz going, though if I read it again I might not think so. Just to get you in that zen state of not caring too much about this and that, and ju...more
Any day is a Good Day To Read Harrison's...
A Good Day To Die.
Jim Harrison
A Good Day To Die
Dell Publishing Group, Inc. New York, NY 1973
Jim Harrison evokes emotion with the least words possible. A minimalist in the style of Hemingway, “A Good Day To Die,” is a shining example of the Iceberg Theory. Combining the Prologue, Epilogue, and all seventeen chapters, the novel is a fast paced one hundred and seventy-six pages in entirety. However, a single reading ...more
A Good Day To Die.
Jim Harrison
A Good Day To Die
Dell Publishing Group, Inc. New York, NY 1973
Jim Harrison evokes emotion with the least words possible. A minimalist in the style of Hemingway, “A Good Day To Die,” is a shining example of the Iceberg Theory. Combining the Prologue, Epilogue, and all seventeen chapters, the novel is a fast paced one hundred and seventy-six pages in entirety. However, a single reading ...more
Somewhere in between Wolves, which I recently found very difficult to read, and Returning to Earth, which was splendid. Written in the early '70's, we begin to see some of the fantastic voice that marks Harrison's later efforts, and certainly the characters, but I found some of the storyline and character interaction slightly redundant, or perhaps I've missed the point. Main character aches with longing for Sylvia, despite knowing what's best for him, and this is an emotion that hammers back a...more
view 1 comment
Finished it because it has some very nice prose. Protagonist is an asshole (which would be fine for some other readers but) and overall it's pretty much your standard macho heterosexual jerk-off book. The one female character is even more one-dimensional than the two main male characters, etc., not a very rewarding read and wouldn't recommend it to others.
A good one. Harrison is a talented writer but I either like his work or don't. Here's another one with a main character who os sexually obsessed. I think Harrison must be too. The end of this one leaves me wanting to know what becomes of them, which is a good thing for a writer to do.
Author cam highly recommended. It was okay. I'm just not much of a fiction reader. At least it was short and that helped with my compulsion to finish every book I start.
typical harrison, full of drugs and destructive behavior............hard to identify with these characters, but I did enjoy the glimpses of the places they went!
My first Jim Harrison book. I was "hooked" from the opening chapter: as I can be a sucker for anything well written and having to do with fly fishing.
Anthony
added it
Made me want to blow up dams. I don't remember a whole hell of a lot from it, but I remember that.
Overall opinion: Read it. It's short.
Overall opinion: Read it. It's short.
The story follows the narrator's path to self-recognition by steadily increasing tension until the unavoidable, and almost unbearable, finale.
Un bon road book.
je me rapelle plus du tout de l'histoire mais je me rapelle qu'il m'ai plus dans l'ensemble....donc trois étoiles mais pas plus.
je me rapelle plus du tout de l'histoire mais je me rapelle qu'il m'ai plus dans l'ensemble....donc trois étoiles mais pas plus.
Jim Harrison to me is a true wordsmith. Concise meaningful sentences and stories that have meat on the bones.
A drunken, hopeless piece of confused depression. Denis Johnson would attain a similar atmosphere years later during some of the bleaker moments in Jesus' Son. An excellent book all around.
one of my favorites of all time....
Break-your-heart reality.
A Good Day to Die is a good read. Never a dull moment. Moves along at a quick pace. It kind of reminded me of the movie Blacktop Highway, but with drugs and sex thrown in and no car racing. This book was my introduction to Jim Harrison. I wanted to read an early work before getting into his later, more developed novels. Moral of the story: don't go blowing up any dam. A Good Day fishing is better than A Good Day Dieing.
I think I may have read this before...or perhaps just an excerpt. The first chapter is damn strong though, so I'm going with it...
Maybe just started it once before. Excellently written, and a nice tale of finding a focus, futile and destructive as that may be, to help get you through a few more days.
Maybe just started it once before. Excellently written, and a nice tale of finding a focus, futile and destructive as that may be, to help get you through a few more days.
Hunter S. Thompson meets Hemingway, two authors I really don't care for, but when brought together in Harrison's drug tripper-meets-fisherman voice really "does it" for me. This book can be read in a day, for those with ADD, bedsores, or little tolerance of "literary pursuits."
A strange artifact of a strange era.
I've read all book until the end, didn't wanted to stop my reading to see if something interesting would happen... but nothing comes !
The opening scene hooked me good. Great early Harrison drug induced mayhem.
Classic Harrison. You either love him or you hate him - there is no middle ground.
I like Jim Harrison, but this is a dark side that I didn't quite appreciate
Samantha Guse
added it
Good fishing... good drugs... and amazing characters. I like Jim Harrison...
I will definately be reading it again.
Really 3 and a half stars.
Reminded me of Bukowski
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Readers Also Enjoyed
Jim Harrison was born in Grayling, Michigan, to Winfield Sprague Harrison, a county agricultural agent, and Norma Olivia (Wahlgren) Harrison, both avid readers. He married Linda King in 1959 with whom he has two daughters.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
His awards include Nation...more
More about Jim Harrison...
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
His awards include Nation...more
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“In Ecuador the Indian mate was too poor to buy Polaroid glasses but he saw the caudal fins of marlin long before my perfect eyes noticed anything. Benny played pool as if the cue stick emerged from his body. Not my alcohol & geometry. She was an asshole and I couldn't have loved her at gunpoint.”
—
1 person liked it
More quotes…
