The Great Leader

A Faux Mystery

By: Jim Harrison

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Author Jim Harrison has won international acclaim for his masterful body of work, including over thirty books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. In his most original work to date, Harrison delivers an enthralling, witty, and expertly crafted novel following one man’s hunt for an elusive cult leader, dubbed the Great Leader.

On the verge of retirement, Detective Sunderson begins to investigate a hedonistic cult, which has set up camp near his home in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. At first, the self-declared Great Leader seems merely a harmless oddball, but as Sunderson and his sixteen-year-old sidekick dig deeper, they find him more intelligent and sinister than they realized. Recently divorced and frequently pickled in alcohol, Sunderson tracks his quarry from the woods of Michigan to a town in Arizona, filled with criminal border-crossers, and on to Nebraska, where the Great Leader’s most recent recruits have gathered to glorify his questionable religion. But Sunderson’s demons are also in pursuit of him.

Rich with character and humor, The Great Leader is at once a gripping excursion through America’s landscapes and the poignant story of a man grappling with age, lost love, and his own darker nature.

©2011 Jim Harrison (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“A classic Harrison novel, complete with humorous and introspective characters.” ( Library Journal)

Wonderful per usual

Ray porter is a top notch narrator even if he miss pronounced Munising a dozen times. Pro tip always have food on or in hand while reading anything Jim Harrison wrote

Good story, excellent writing, place names not pronounced correctly

Jim Harrison is a great writer. Here, the story was very good, enjoyed the ending. It was a little distracting to hear the place names mispronounced because it’s easy to get that sort of thing right.

Jim and Ray,,, Perfect Pairing

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

If you love Jim Harrison, then you will enjoy this book. It is classic Harrison.

If you’ve listened to books by Jim Harrison before, how does this one compare?

Yes. I like his style and I adore his take on life. Jim Harrisson is pretty consistent with both of these elements in his books.

What does Ray Porter bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Ray Porter is THE perfect reader for Jim Harrison's work. No other reader captures Harrison as well as Porter does. Excellent. He brings Harrison's words alive. I feel a tad let down when listening to a Harrison with another reader. Porter's voice and cadence personifies Harrison's characters.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I pretty much did.

Any additional comments?

Keep up the good work, Jim. Listening to a Harrison-Porter book is a great experience.

I love Jim Harrison

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. Harrison writes stories with interesting characters, and wonderful descriptive prose. He is also thought provoking. I want to read "Playing Indian" now, which is referred to many times in "The Great Leader".

Are you an over-thehill guy with one last mission?

Jim Harrison sneaks into the headspace of middle-aged men whose greatest fears are diminishing libido, loss of purpose, and the death of adventure in their lives. He's is so good at this that readers/listeners of both genders become spectators in the secret rituals of the society of men.

The Great Leader: A faux Mystery messes with our heads. It asks us to make value judgements about his main character, a washed up detective whose last case nags at him like his fears of losing his libido. We don't know whether to cheer for our hero or curse him for his behaviors. But, what we do know is that our personal tolerance for edgy behavior and thinking is questioned by the actions of the protagonist.

You should listen to this book, if nothing else than to test your own values about ethics, sexuality, and justice. Don't be afraid to challenge your core beliefs with this excellent mystery.

Narrator butchers the story

I found the narrator's absolute and total disregard to correctly pronounce many of Michigan's towns and locales a crime against literate humanity.

The story is fine, but the performance...

was tremendous! I think the performer should do all of Harrison's work. He strikes the perfect time for Harrison's prose.

Narrator didn't learn the author's landscape

The narrator and production crew who let him get away with it probably live on one of the coasts and don't travel very much.

There was a real provincialism to his mangling of nearly every Michigan locale he came across: Munising, the Vierling restaurant, Petoskey, Trenary, even Mackinac, among others.

I live on a coast, too. There's no excuse to not do your homework if you're getting paid to develop a professional production narrating an author notoriously rooted in a specific landscape. Learn that author's landscape.

A Well Written Confusion In a Fascinating Muddle

As I've come to expect of Jim Harrison, the writing is briliant. The images are unforgettable. The metaphors and similes are outrageous. The characters stagger with their depth. And the story makes no sense at all. It feels like a string of vignettes, all glued together around a retired, burnt-out detective. Enjoyed it -- as long as I was able to put any hint of reasoning to bed. A fine read on a very long drive!

A Complete, Down-to-earth Man

Jim Harrison is one of the few contemporary writers who speaks (through all his first person narrators) as a reasonable soul who has found in this world of madness and despair the real meaning of living. His love of sex, brook trout, and the richness of every aspect of life comes to him because they are what they are and he is what he is, whether he's a State Police Detective (ret.) or a happy wanderer with a strangely exciting teen-age girl passenger : (English Major).
. I would love nothing better in life than to spend three months (brook trout season) with this richly articulate man whose found himself.