The English Major

By: Jim Harrison

Narrated by: Mark Bramhall

"It used to be Cliff and Vivian and now it isn't."

With these words, Jim Harrison begins a riotous, moving novel that sends a 60-something man on a quest of self-rediscovery.

Newly divorced and robbed of his farm by his real-estate shark of an ex-wife, Cliff is off on a road trip across America, on a mission to rename all the states and state birds and redeem them from the banal names men have given them.

Cliff's adventures take him through a whirlwind affair with a former student from his high-school teaching days 20-some years before, to a snake farm in Arizona owned by an old classmate, and into the high-octane existence of his son, a big-time movie producer. A map of a man's journey into - and out of - himself, The English Major is vintage Harrison: reflective, big-picture American, and replete with wicked wit.

©2008 Jim Harrison (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Harrison is consistently witty and engaging as he drives home his timeless theme: that change can be beneficial at any point in life." ( Publishers Weekly)

On the Road with an Unreconstructed Sixties Geezer

This is the book Jack Kerouac might have written if he'd lived to be 60. Jim Harrison's style is a little more fluid but the English Major of the title is as innocent, romantic, and non-conformist as any of the members of the Beat Generation. A recently divorced former high school teacher evicted from his Michigan family farm drives around the Midwest and West on a Quiczotic quest to rename the states and the state birds. This senior citizen's misadventures include sex and craziness and heavy drinking -- tempered by an admonition that "alcoholism is the writer's black-lung disease".Because this is a Jim Harrison novel, there is also some gourmet Zen. In a lesser novelist's hands, this would be oh hum but Harrison turns the prosaic into magic.

All this is helped by Mark Bamhall's dead-on narration.

An enjoyable ride.

Curmudgeonly Tale of the Road

I enjoyed this book so much. I think the magic is the sum of the parts: the narration is spot-on; the story of the open road is descriptive and interesting without being laborious; the literary allusions of the title are non-pretentious and often heart-aching; and the main character: priceless. I almost didn't get this book because of the other reviews, but trust me, for those of a certain sensibility, this is a journey you will enjoy.

A picaresque novel for baby boomers

Mark Bramhall sets just the right tone for the first person narration of Cliff, a former English major, high school teacher and farmer. 60-year-old Cliff is in the dumps because his wife has left him, his beloved dog has died, and his farm has been sold out from under him. So he takes off on a cross country road trip. This is a novel of ideas more than action, and the context of a road trip allows Cliff to muse on the nature of love and marriage, fidelity, loss, career choices, fishing, natural beauty and changes of fortune. The narrator captures the tension between the ennui Cliff feels at his losses, and the growing excitement of new landscapes and unplanned days. Harrison's prose is pleasantly conversational, yet elegant in its simplicity and lack of artifice.

Tristram Shandy 300 years later

This is a bawdy, picaresgue novel about a recently divorced and aging Midwestern farmer as he travels through America on a series of women. It tickles one's fancy.

Just get ready to laugh

I'm not sure if it was the writer's dry wit or the narrator excellence in delivering it, but this story just made me laugh. Its sad at points and your heart goes out for the main character at times, but his unique way at looking at life is refreshing and funny. I almost gave it 4 stars because the ending didn't quite live up to the rest of the book, but after thinking about the fact that I listened to it twice (something I rarely do) I went ahead and gave it 5 stars.