Two men in love with the same woman. A man coming to terms with his wife and daughter moving on and moving away from him. A family grieving so many losses but finding purpose in their pain. These are the three stories contained in Jim Harrison’s Legends of the Fall, a collection of novellas about the depth of human emotion and mankind’s brash decision-making processes. These short stories are full of improper relationships, drugs, and organized crime:
In “Revenge”, Harrison explores the love between a woman and the two men in her life – a Mexican drug lord and a naïve American. This story sees brutality and passion that feels like a ripped from the headlines story when the American and the woman are ripped from their love nest, brutally beaten and disfigured, and cruelly left unprotected from the world and separated from each other.
“The Man Who Gave Up His Name” takes another disturbing twist when a man with a successful history in the professional world gives it all up. His wife left him, his daughter is graduating and moving away, and his parents are dead. In his grief, the man is seems indulging in drugs and sex with his daughter’s friend. Later, a local drug dealer threatens his life multiple times after the man becomes interested in the dealer’s woman.
Harrison takes us to the western frontier in “Legends of the Fall” to visit a family that suffers great loss. The three sons head to Canada to volunteer for the war effort. One is killed, one severely injured, and one goes crazy. The brother that went crazy marries a woman the injured brother is in love with, but then runs off to seek revenge giving his wife to the other man. Later, the crazy brother remarries and makes a good life with several children. However, the wife is killed in a run in with law enforcement over a liquor run and the crazy brother seeks revenge again, including against the government by running more liquor against prohibition rules. He attracts the attention of another mob on these runs and risks his family’s safety.
I give Legends of the Fall 4 out of 5 stars. I liked these individual stories, but seeing them packaged together became a little disturbing with the amount of sex, drugs, and gangs included. I also found myself frustrated by the way that mental health issues were described and almost made light of in each novella. Each main character in the book suffers from some kind of mental health challenge, even if it isn’t explicitly called out. It disturbed me at the way that inappropriate relationships were almost celebrated in the book, especially in “The Man Who Gave Up His Name”. The writing style does lend the reader to visualize the settings well, but some of the characters could have used more development. I know that Harrison is a much lauded poet and writer, and I would be willing to give his other works a chance, but this was a bit too much for me.
If you love westerns and rougher books, this may be the book for you. I would direct the book to more mature readers over 16 due to the violence, sex, and drug use. I would also caution against this book to any readers who have had substance abuse challenges or victims of domestic violence.
I chose Legends of the Fall for the Read With Lindsey Reading Challenge prompt “Father/Child Relationships”. This one fits the bill in the last two novellas, particularly the last where you see the patriarch fathering his sons, along with the sons and supporting characters fathering the next generation, too. There may be books you’d enjoy for this prompt a little more than this though – check out yesterday’s weekly agenda for some other great suggestions!
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What I’m Reading
- Current print book: My Magnolia Summer, Victoria Benton Frank
- Current audio book: TBD
- Book I’m most looking forward to: Call Upon the Water, Stella Tillyard
Read With Lindsey 