The English Major: A Novel - Hardcover

Harrison, Jim

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802118631 ISBN 13: 9780802118639

Publisher: Grove Press, 2008

Synopsis

"It used to be Cliff and Vivian and now it isn't." With these words, Jim Harrison sends his sixty-something protagonist, divorced and robbed of his farm by a late-blooming real estate shark of an ex-wife, on a road trip across America, armed with a childhood puzzle of the United States and a mission to rename all the states and state birds to overcome the banal names men have given them. Cliff's adventures take him through a whirlwind affair with a former student from his high school-teacher days twenty-some years before, to a "snake farm" in Arizona owned by an old classmate; and to the high-octane existence of his son, a big-time movie producer in San Francisco.

The English Major is the map of a man's journey into—and out of—himself, and it is vintage Harrison—reflective, big-picture American, and replete with wicked wit.

About this title

About the Author:

Jim Harrison (1937-2016) was the author of over thirty-five books of poetry, nonfiction, and fiction, including Legends of the Fall, The Road Home, The English Major, and The Farmer's Daughter. His writing appeared in the New Yorker, Esquire, Sports Illustrated, Playboy, and the New York Times. He earned a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Spirit of the West Award from the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association. His work has been recognized worldwide and published in twenty-two languages.

From AudioFile:

The title of Jim Harrison's latest novel, THE ENGLISH MAJOR, could lead someone to expect a military story. But this is about a guy who majored in English in college and became a farmer. Really. Odd title aside, this story of a man who gives up the farm and wanders the country is a wonderful piece of work. Narrator Mark Bramhall is the epitome of the rural farmer. His voice, his inflections, his astonishment at the ways of city folk make it easy to ride with Cliff on an American road trip as he tries to forget the wife who abruptly divorced him and sold the farm out from under him. Bramhall's sometimes hushed tones mask the character's world of torment and desire to scream out loud. M.S. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0802118631
• ISBN 13: 9780802118639
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304