A River Runs Through It and Other Stories in Around the World in 80 Books

Jun 21, 2022 Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure, relationships, west, sports, family, fiction

"In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly-fishing—there isn’t anything in it that doesn’t depend on what comes before it for its meaning."

A River Runs Through It is the semi-autobiographical story of Norman Maclean and his relationship to his brother, Paul. The story is told through the mutual passion for fly-fishing, a passion also shared with the two men's father. It's a brilliant story of the complexities of relationships, set in the raw world of western Montana. ...more

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Mar 07, 2024 Linda Martin rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: geo-idaho, 2024, fiction, geo-montana, families

This is definitely a guy-book. I think men might like it more than I did. It was very well-written in that the writer knew how to make his stories literary and impressive. Some of the subject matter seemed very degenerate to me, so I can't love the book no matter how well it was written. The characters were extremely flawed, but that was presented as normal most of the time.

The first story is best known because it was made into a movie. I don't know how well the movie follows the story because I This is definitely a guy-book. I think men might like it more than I did. It was very well-written in that the writer knew how to make his stories literary and impressive. Some of the subject matter seemed very degenerate to me, so I can't love the book no matter how well it was written. The characters were extremely flawed, but that was presented as normal most of the time.

The first story is best known because it was made into a movie. I don't know how well the movie follows the story because I'm not much of a movie viewer. In A River Runs Through It two brothers love fishing and there are some intricately described fishing trips that made me feel like I was right there standing in the water with them. I never knew much about fly fishing but now I think I understand it very well.

The second story is Logging and Pimping and "Your Pal, Jim." It is well described by the title and fortunately the shortest of the three stories. Very degenerate.

The third story I found much more interesting. It is USFS 1919: The Ranger, the Cook, and a Hole in the Sky." The first two stories take place in Montana but this story is set in the Bitterroot Mountains of Northern Idaho. I used to live near that mountain range and had a nice view of them from my office window. The protagonist is a 17 year old employed for the summer by the fledgling US Forest Service in 1919. Maybe these are the memories of the author. It reads that way.

Anyhow, were it not for the frequent mentioning of prostitutes, degenerate people, and fighting I probably would have liked these stories more because the writing style was fantastic. However I wasn't 100% favorably impressed with the subject matter. I read this because I'm doing a "USA Roadtrip" this year, reading a book from each of the US states. This was my Montana book. Overall, the experience was painless.

Cleanliness factor: not terrible but not perfectly clean either. I don't remember any cursing. There were prostitutes. Sex was never graphically described or I would have stopped listening right then. There were redeeming qualities to the first and third stories. Maybe I missed the point of story #2. ...more

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Nov 07, 2022 Andy Plonka rated it really liked it

Shelves: src, unread

I knew nothing about fishing without really caring until I read this book. Maclean certainly has a way with words. I'm glad I stumbled my way into this book. ...more

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Oct 29, 2011 mstan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: lit-ty, american, src-winter-2011-12

This was actually pretty hard to focus on; it made me wonder if my brain had melted from too much YA fiction. I could see the beauty of certain lines, but in the end I liked David James Duncan's more sprawling fishing story, The River Why, better. Maclean's prose is of the deceptively spare kind - actually really dense, with melancholy as thick as fog. I took quite a few days to finish this slim volume.

There is a pretty good story on lumberjacks, gambling and the quest to prove one's masculinity ...more

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Jul 04, 2007 Scott rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: bookclub

I enjoy these outdoorsy types stories having grown up in Oregon. The movie was good too. Fishing, living in the great out of doors, values, good clean living..

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