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Synopsis
Celebrated author Jim Harrison, whose robust, tender, and deeply felt books have made their mark on the American literary landscape, here delivers a collection of three novellas infused with all the wisdom and generous spirit that have made him a master writer.
In the title novella, "The Summer He Didn't Die", Brown Dog, a hapless Michigan Indian, is trying to parent his two stepchildren on meager resources; it helps that his charms are irresistible to the new dentist in town.
"Republican Wives" is a riotous satire on the sexual neuroses of the political right and the irrational nature of love—which, when thwarted, can easily turn into an urge to murder.
"Tracking" gives the author's life story as a tale of the places that have marked it.
With wit as sharp as ever and prose as lush as any Harrison has yet written, The Summer He Didn't Die is a joyful ode to our journey on this earth.
The New York Times - Jean Thompson
One of the pleasures of reading Jim Harrison's fifth collection of novellas is the reminder that this intermediate, unloved and ostensibly unpublishable form is capable of great range and vitality. Novellas must pack all the apparatus of a novel (characters moving through time, sustained action) into a briefer space. In Harrison's case this is an economical 100 pages or so. And ideally, novellas must have something of the short story's precision and the lift that comes from crisp timing and execution. The Summer He Didn't Die meets all these technical requirements, but mostly it succeeds because it is fueled by solid storytelling and by Harrison's characteristic ease as a stylist.