Product Description

Thirty years after its original publication, an American classic is now available in a special expanded edition. Maclean writes in my family, there is no clear line between religion and fly-fishing. Nor is there a clear line between family and fly-fishing. It is the one activity where brother can connect with brother and father with son. In Maclean s autobiographical novella, it is the river that makes them realize that life continues and all things are related. Also included on this new release: On the Big Blackfoot, the memoir that inspired A River Runs Through It, read by Maclean and his son John, backed by the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1015245 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-23
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Binding: Audio CD

From Amazon.com
Beginning with the memorable line, "In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing," Maclean paints an evocative portrait of the sons of a small-town Montana minister, two brothers headed in very different directions. Fly-fishing for trout is one thing that unites father and sons, and, in the end, it is the language of the river that provides understanding and acceptance in the most difficult of times.

A River Runs Through It is arguably the best piece of fly-fishing literature ever written, and the paperback edition includes two great non-fly fishing stories.

From Library Journal
One of the best-selling audiotapes ever, this title became hard to find recently, as it fell victim to a series of buyouts of various publishers. HighBridge is putting a new cover on this classic reading by Ivan Doig, Montana native and author of This House of Sky.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Norman Maclean wrote this work to preserve memories of his late brother, but it's not exactly a memoir or biography. The people are real, but the way the memories bend with the passage of years is evident, Maclean's son notes, since his father penned it after retirement. Ivan Doig reads this tale of male bonding on a Montana river with the personal touch that Maclean himself gave it. This edition includes "On the Big Blackfoot," a disc that includes writing fragments of Maclean, his son's memories of him, and an interview with the author. The bonus disc is well produced, but since it is fragments, it may disappoint those already familiar with the earlier work. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

One quote sticks out...
One passage amoungst many sticks out from this book that is full of wisdom if you take the time to read closely and relate it to the many aspects of your life and the lives of others:

He thought back on what had happened like a reporter. He started to answer, shook his head when he found he was wrong, and then started to answer. "All there is to thinking," he said, "is seeing something noticeable which makes you see something you weren't noticing which makes you see something that isn't even visible."

This book should be read by anyone seeking an understanding of life. If you've seen the movie, give the book a try. The combination of both will give a feel for a moment in one man's life and a lifetime of reflection. Both are superb!

Ten stars. He makes me jealous of his talent
I'm a writer, and occasionally I write a sentence or paragraph - or even several pages, now and then - that I think read quite well. But then, when I read the writing of someone like Normal Maclean, I consider throwing in the towel in recognition of the fact that, no matter how long I try, I'll never write that beautifully.
Of course, the title story in this rather small book, A River Runs Through It, is known to the majority of literate people in the US, and not just because of the marvelous movie made from the novella. But this book has other stories as well. Maclean used his teenage experience working for logging operations and the US Forestry Service as the foundation for a couple of the other loooong stories included in this collection. And, get this: even the Acknowledgments section is worth a careful read; it reads like another essay, in itself.
Normal Maclean, to me, seems to have some of the attributes of E. B. White, specifically the ability to take something concrete and mundane, like fly fishing or packing mules for a 3-day walk into the Montana mountains, and, with the lyricism and beauty and skill of his writing, make it soar into the ethereal world of Universal Truth.
Don't believe me? Read it and see for yourself.

A book you will read more than once.
Norman Maclean began writing late in life, passing away not long after penning this extraordinary piece, depriving us of his gift just as he arrived. The book is actually three short stories but the focus is clearly on the novella "A River Runs Through It". On the surface, the title story is his recollections of his father, a Presbyterian minister, and his troubled but talented brother, with whom he fished. Set in the Montana of Maclean's youth, he paints exquisitely vivid and beautiful word pictures of a land and water and family now gone. At the core is the frustration of the often-futile attempt of trying to help another or trying to save a loved one from their self-destruction. There are passages here which are as wonderfully written as anything in English. Not a page passes without discovering a superbly crafted gem. "So it is...that we can seldom help anybody. Either we don't know what part to give or maybe we don't like to give any part of ourselves. Then, more often than not, the part that is needed is not wanted. And even more often, we do not have the part that is needed." "It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us." Throughout the tale, his life, his religion, his family, his fly-fishing are metaphors, each for the other. And the words of each are heard in the waters and stone of the rivers. He is haunted, he tells us, by waters. I am haunted by his words which approach poetry.