The Summer He Didn't Die

Jim Harrison is one of our finest writers, whose robust, tender, and deeply felt fictions — like Dalva, Legends of the Fall, The Road Home, and his most recent novel, the widely acclaimed True North — have made their mark on the contemporary American literary landscape. Now he delivers a collection of three novellas infused with all the wisdom and generous spirit that have made him one of our masters.

Witty, earthy, and joyful, The Summer He Didn't Die is a sheer celebration of life and all its magic. In the title novella, "The Summer He Didn't Die," Brown Dog, a hapless Michigan Indian loved by Harrison's readers, is trying to parent his two stepchildren and take care of his family's health on meager resources. "Republican Wives" is a riotous satire on the sexual neuroses of the right, the mystery of why any person desires another, and the irrational power of love that, when thwarted, can turn so easily into an urge to murder. "Where Are We?" mines Harrison's private religion of the sensuous and sensual as integral to the transcendent joy of living.

The Summer He Didn't Die displays wit as sharp and prose as lush as any Harrison has yet written. It is a resonant, hilarious, and joyful ode to our journey on this earth.

"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." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"This collection of stories about indigent American Indians, Republican housewives and grisly murder is vintage Harrison — rhythmic, intelligent and surprising in its bluntly related twists and turns." Ft. Worth Star-Telegram

"Celebrates life and its magic." Duluth News-Tribune

"An appealing...work..." Library Journal

"Harrison's earthy prose, uniquely evocative of place, is economical, precise, and hearty, and is sometimes startling in its ability to touch on core truths." Booklist

"[T]his candid look back may be of interest to those who care about the writing game or about Jim Harrison's fiercely independent life in particular." Washington Post

"With The Summer He Didn't Die, Jim Harrison solidifies his position as a seasoned chronicler of outdoor life and inner turmoil..." San Diego Union-Tribune

"Jim Harrison cannot write too often....His three novellas packaged in The Summer He Didn't Die will be eagerly received by fans here and abroad..." Minneapolis Star Tribune

The acclaimed author of True North now delivers a collection of three novellas infused with all the wisdom and generous spirit that have made him one of America's masters. Witty, earthy, and joyful, this work is a celebration of life and all its magic.

A sparkling and exuberant collection of novellas from a writer who is one of the contemporary masters of the form, The Summer He Didn't Die is a celebration of love, the senses, and family, no matter how untraditional.

Jim Harrison is also the author of four volumes of novellas, The Beast God Forgot to Invent, Legends of the Fall, The Woman Lit by Fireflies, and Julip; seven other novels, The Road Home, Wolf, A Good Day to Die, Farmer, Warlock, Sundog, and Dalva; ten collections of poetry, including most recently Braided Creek, with Ted Kooser, and The Shape of the Journey: New and Collected Poems; and three works of nonfiction, Just Before Dark, The Raw and the Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand, and the memoir Off to the Side. The winner of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Spirit of the West Award from the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association, he has had his work published in twenty-two languages.