The River Swimmer: Book summary and reviews of The River Swimmer by Jim Harrison

The River Swimmer Summary

Jim Harrison is one of America's most beloved and critically-acclaimed authors, on a par with American literary greats like Richard Ford, Anne Tyler, Robert Stone, Russell Banks, and Ann Beattie. His latest collection of novellas, The River Swimmer, is Harrison at his most memorable: a brilliant rendering of two men striving to find their way in the world, written with freshness, abundant wit, and profound humanity.

In The Land of Unlikeness, sixty-year-old art history academic Clive - a failed artist, divorced and grappling with the vagaries of his declining years - reluctantly returns to his family's Michigan farmhouse to visit his aging mother. The return to familiar territory triggers a jolt of renewal?of ardor for his high school love, of his relationship with his estranged daughter, and of his own lost love of painting. In Water Baby, Harrison ventures into the magical as an Upper Peninsula farm boy is irresistibly drawn to the water as an escape, and sees otherworldly creatures there. Faced with the injustice and pressure of coming of age, he takes to the river and follows its siren song all the way across Lake Michigan.

The River Swimmer is a striking portrait of two richly-drawn, profoundly human characters, and an exceptional reminder of why Jim Harrison is one of the most cherished and important writers at work today.

The River Swimmer Reviews

"Rich and satisfying." - Publishers Weekly

"Everyday epiphanies from a major author." - Kirkus Reviews

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Jim Harrison Author Biography

Jim Harrison was born in 1937, in Grayling, Michigan. He graduated from Michigan Statue University and taught there for a time. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, Sports Illustrated, Playboy, and The New York Times. Harrison is also the author of over twenty-five books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, including four volumes of novellas, The Beast God Forgot to Invent (2000), Legends of the Fall (1979), The Woman Lit by Fireflies (1990), and Julip (1994); seven other novels, The Road Home (1998), Wolf (1971), A Good Day to Die (1973), Farmer (1976), Warlock (1981), and Dalva (1988); ten collections of poetry, including most recently Saving Daylight (2006),...

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