English Major [Hardcover]

With Jim Harrison, you always know that you'll be reading something that is well off the beaten track, so to speak. He writes for himself, not to please a segment of the population. With most of his work, you feel that you're getting deep within a person's soul. The English Major is a bit more "escapist" than some of his deeper and darker (in the sense of unsettling, not supernatural, although there may be a surreal feel) novels. The story is about a man recently in his 60's whose wife of almost 40 years has booted him out for another man. Cliff leaves his farm in Michigan on an Odyssey (using caps seems appropriate) across many of the western US states. He takes with him an old jigsaw puzzle, and as he leaves each state he "sacrifices" that piece of the puzzle.

Cliff's journey takes him to Wisconsin, Minnestota, and eventually into Montana. On this early part of the trip he is joined by a former student Marybelle, who will be dropped off at her husband's digging site in Montana. Marybelle is a cell-phone addict to an extent that rivals Cliff's ex-wife's appetite for junk food. Cliff wants open spaces, Marybelle wants nearby cell phone towers. Harrison's great strength lies in the depth of his characterizations. You seem to always get a good understanding and appreciation of everyone--evn the waitresses in the small cafes along the way. There are wonderful descriptions of Cliff's mixed reactions to Marybelle--the sex, the incessant cellphone chatter, whether it is better to have companionship or quiet solitary communions with nature (Cliff also enjoys fishing).

Cliff's son lives in San Francisco, and always has more advice for him than Cliff wants, the ex-wife wants to see him as well, and, of course, Marybelle and her cell phone intrudes. Harrison's novels are mostly about change, about introspection, about discovering yourself. You may well find youself thinking about Homer's Odyssey: are there parallels? deliberate parallels? or is this totally irrelevant? It's a strange voyage, full of character and characters, and a very engaging story.

I tried hard to like this book, and I succeeded, at least partly. The title was an instant grabber since I too was an English major, forty years ago. Harrison (who was once, incidentally, like me, a Reed City Boy) has told interviewers that the book's title was spawned by the oft-asked question from his practical-minded and sometimes dim northern Michigan friends and relatives: "Why wouldja major in English when ya already know English?" Point taken, I suppose. The truth is that most English majors were/are people who love books and reading. But then those same people often end up as teachers; and some of them, like me, find out they don't really like teaching, just books. Anyway, ol' Cliff, the book's 60 yr-old protagonist, taught high school English for 10 yrs, then went back to farming, another job he didn't really like all that much, but got kinda used to over a 25 yr period. When his wife of nearly 40 yrs leaves him, his dog dies and he loses his farm, all practically at the same time, he is forced to re-examine his life and try to make a new one. So he goes on the road, fancying himself a kind of codger-Kerouac, perhaps. As is true in almost all of Harrison's books, women fling themselves at him and have their way with his tired ol' body, which begins to very much feel its age after too much vigorous sex. He seems to find more pleasure in frequent naps and food than he does in these adventures in the sack though. In point of fact, his descriptions of his meals, taken in various diners, bars and seedy restaurants, or self-prepared, as he travels west across the country from Michigan to California, and back to Montana, become rather tiresome, as do his frequent digressions on life and sex and just about everything else. The plot, if there indeed is one, is pretty thin. Having said all this however, I have to admit that I often found myself chuckling or even laughing out loud as I empathized with Cliff's revisionist ruminations on growing older and suffering the humiliations and pains of diminishing strenghth and waning sexual energy. His self-deprecating humor as he variously characterizes himself as a geezer, a codger, or an old Studebaker standing in the weeds, is quite contagious and I found myself rooting for the pore ol' fart. So the ending - which isn't exactly a "happily-ever-after" one, but wasn't really too awful either - seemed appropriate. And I'm pretty sure Cliff is correct about his future. He'll "do fine." - Tim Bazzett, author of the Reed City Boy trilogy

This novel concerns the transition of a 60-year-old man from one chapter of life to another using the device of a road trip. Cliff addresses his life, but not always successfully. Harrison is a fine writer, but at times I felt he almost phoned in some of his observations. There is really not much soul searching during this aborted voyage of discovery. Many times the protagonist snapping pictures, usually of cows, and applying quotes from his past as an English teacher. It is not certain why he gave up that profession to become a farmer, and the characters are somewhat 2 dimensional except for his beloved late dog, Lola. His project, that of renaming all the states and their state birds, seems more of a device than a calling. There are some lovely passages hinting at the talent of this fine writer, but this is not one of his better efforts.

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