The Summer He Didn't Die

By: Jim Harrison

Narrated by: Lloyd James, Marguerite Gavin

Celebrated author Jim Harrison, whose robust, tender, and deeply felt books have made their mark on the American literary landscape, here delivers a collection of three novellas infused with all the wisdom and generous spirit that his readers have come to expect.

In the title novella, "The Summer He Didn't Die", Brown Dog, a hapless Michigan Indian, is trying to parent his two stepchildren on meager resources. It helps that his charms are irresistible to the new dentist in town.

"Republican Wives" is a riotous satire on the sexual neuroses of the political right and the irrational nature of love, which, when thwarted, can turn into an urge to murder.

"Tracking" tells the author's life story through a retracing of the places and settings that have marked it.

©2005 Jim Harrison (P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Harrison's command of the novella form is as impressive as the range of his voices....This set of short fictions shifts pitch-perfect perspectives effortlessly, with a lightness that belies its depth." (Publishers Weekly)
"Harrison's earthy prose, uniquely evocative of place, is economical, precise, and hearty, and is sometimes startling in its ability to touch on core truths." (Booklist)

great collection in spite of performance flaws

the constant mispronunciation of Michigan locations as well as various flora and fauna are irritating and disappointing. a minimum amount of homework would have fixed these issues. generally the narrator has an appropriate tone though and does a good job in other respects. the stories are good in general with the final story being the highlight

I want to be Brown Dog!

Jim is a modern classic writer. His stories resonate widely and passionately. His characters seem childlike and warped by adulthood all in the same time-space continuum. How he can reach back and retrieve such deep and lost memories is a lost art.

You’ve got to be kidding me! or so I thought....

I was enjoying this book so much! Love Jim Harrison! But at the halfway through suddenly I was listening to “Republican wives“! What the heck! How do I get to hear the rest of this book? that was what I wrote before I realized that the wonderful story that began the set of stories had ended unsatisfactorily. I wanted to know more! so I still have to listen to the other stories, but the narration was so good for the first that it will be hard for me to transition to another narrator. I usually do not read the details on the book before listening, but I guess I will have to from now on to avoid such deep disappointment! A really mixed experience.

Harrison requires we think

Jim Harrison writes in a manner that causes us to think. Ponder our own existence even. This may sound heady but rest assured there is wit and humor along the way. At times you reach the end and wonder what happened to the end. Where is our tidy roll up of the plot. Life is not like that particularly and Harrison reminds in good fashion.
If language does not bother you, worth every listen.

Another Wonderfully Drawn Character

He’s given us a Hero with the Innocence of Beaver Cleaver, the Soul of Francis of Assisi, and the Frustrated Libido of a Teenage Hugh Hefner! Bravo!

A fun read.