Jim Harrison Critical Essay | Critical Essay by James J. McClintock

Critical Essay by James J. McClintock

SOURCE: “Jim Harrison, Soul-Maker,” in Midwest Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 2, Winter, 2000, pp. 191-207.

In the following essay, McClintock gives examples of the influences of psychologist James Hillman and poet John Keats on Harrison's writing.

The jackets on Jim Harrison's books used to note that he lives in northern Michigan and “is a keen fisherman” and “bird hunter.” They don't now, not even for a work like his collection of essays, Just Before Dark (1991), a third of which is devoted to outdoor sport. The change is wise because Harrison's novels, novellas, poems, and essays have never been merely neo-realist narratives about adventurous men; nevertheless, they have been unfairly criticized for being macho derivatives of Hemingway. That criticism has diminished since Dalva (1988), “The Woman Lit By Fireflies” (1990), and “Julip” (1994), all narratives of women's lives.

Harrison's works, in fact, have always been as much about the interior...
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