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Off to the Side: A Memoir
Selected as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Off to the Side is the tale of one of America's most beloved writers. Jim Harrison traces his upbringing in Michigan amid the austerities of the Depression and the Second World War, and the seemingly greater austerities of his starchy Swedish forebears. He chronicles his coming-of-age, from a boy drunk with books to a young man making his way among fellow writers he deeply admires — including Peter Matthiessen, Robert Lowell, W.H. Auden, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, and Allen Ginsberg. Harrison discusses forthrightly the life-changing experience of becoming a father, and the minor cognitive dissonance that ensued when this boy from the "heartland" somehow ended up a highly paid Hollywood screenwriter. He gives free rein to his "seven obsessions" — alcohol, food, stripping, hunting and fishing (and the dogs who have accompanied him in both), religion, the road, and our place in the natural world — which he elucidates with earthy wisdom and an elegant sense of connectedness. Off to the Side is a work of great beauty and importance, a triumphant achievement that captures the writing life and brings all of us clues for living.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
160 people are currently reading
872 people want to read
About the author
Jim Harrison
184 books1,493 followersJim Harrison was born in Grayling, Michigan, to Winfield Sprague Harrison, a county agricultural agent, and Norma Olivia (Wahlgren) Harrison, both avid readers. He married Linda King in 1959 with whom he has two daughters.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
His awards include National Academy of Arts grants (1967, 68, 69), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1969-70), the Spirit of the West Award from the Mountain & Plains Booksellers Association, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007).
Much of Harrison's writing depicts sparsely populated regions of North America with many stories set in places such as Nebraska's Sand Hills, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Montana's mountains, and along the Arizona-Mexico border.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
His awards include National Academy of Arts grants (1967, 68, 69), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1969-70), the Spirit of the West Award from the Mountain & Plains Booksellers Association, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007).
Much of Harrison's writing depicts sparsely populated regions of North America with many stories set in places such as Nebraska's Sand Hills, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Montana's mountains, and along the Arizona-Mexico border.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
October 19, 2019
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In the past I have not been kind in my thoughts and statements regarding Jim Harrison’s poetry. I still feel the same way. But his novellas, novels, essays, and memoirs are top-notch. Through the years there have been countless biographies and memoirs promising readers to be the very best of their genre. And many of them have lived up to this hype. And what happens in these cases is the reader is led to other important works and interesting characters. For me, there has never been a more tantalizing literary subject than Jim Harrison. And why it took me so long to finally read his first memoir is something I regret. This book is that good.
What surprisingly comes through on these many pages is his remarkable humility. I suppose Harrison’s rough and often unapproachable demeanor left an impression of a self-importance that is proven debunked by his own words. Harrison was truly a recluse, but nonetheless he still made many disagreeable efforts to get out and read his work publicly and sign a few books. His life, by choice, was obviously not easy, but he lived simply enough to survive.
Being a connoisseur of literary digression I thoroughly enjoyed the many detours and u-turns Harrison took me on, and I felt that old familiar regret that another great book would again end too soon. I wish I would have read this memoir first before tackling all the others that came afterwards. I generally felt Harrison’s other memoirs were so good that this one would not measure up to the rollicking fun his other books provided as well as playfully honest insights into the world he inhabited. There is much to learn within a Jim Harrison memoir. I cannot stress enough the importance of reading everything you can that has been written by this man. Whether it is his deep and undying love for wife and family, gourmet cooking, hunting wild animals, abusing drugs and alcohol, meaningful lasting friendships, struggles with depression, eating fine food, getting lost, and the myriad other subjects he discovers as part of his craft, there is never a dull moment and always something to be learned within the events both good and bad throughout his life. Sadly the great man is gone, but his work remains, and that was his plan all along.
In the past I have not been kind in my thoughts and statements regarding Jim Harrison’s poetry. I still feel the same way. But his novellas, novels, essays, and memoirs are top-notch. Through the years there have been countless biographies and memoirs promising readers to be the very best of their genre. And many of them have lived up to this hype. And what happens in these cases is the reader is led to other important works and interesting characters. For me, there has never been a more tantalizing literary subject than Jim Harrison. And why it took me so long to finally read his first memoir is something I regret. This book is that good.
What surprisingly comes through on these many pages is his remarkable humility. I suppose Harrison’s rough and often unapproachable demeanor left an impression of a self-importance that is proven debunked by his own words. Harrison was truly a recluse, but nonetheless he still made many disagreeable efforts to get out and read his work publicly and sign a few books. His life, by choice, was obviously not easy, but he lived simply enough to survive.
Being a connoisseur of literary digression I thoroughly enjoyed the many detours and u-turns Harrison took me on, and I felt that old familiar regret that another great book would again end too soon. I wish I would have read this memoir first before tackling all the others that came afterwards. I generally felt Harrison’s other memoirs were so good that this one would not measure up to the rollicking fun his other books provided as well as playfully honest insights into the world he inhabited. There is much to learn within a Jim Harrison memoir. I cannot stress enough the importance of reading everything you can that has been written by this man. Whether it is his deep and undying love for wife and family, gourmet cooking, hunting wild animals, abusing drugs and alcohol, meaningful lasting friendships, struggles with depression, eating fine food, getting lost, and the myriad other subjects he discovers as part of his craft, there is never a dull moment and always something to be learned within the events both good and bad throughout his life. Sadly the great man is gone, but his work remains, and that was his plan all along.
January 26, 2012
Harrison's memoir is like one of his road trips, meandering, never certain where you might stop next.
Sometime that made me restive, like driving on a straight road through the same landscape for days.
Sometime that ended up in spectacular unexpected places.
Sometimes his writing about writing is breathtaking: "There is a wonderful "brainlessness" to novel writing. I mean that you are using so much of your mind you forget that it exists."
Sometimes his writing about life is breathtaking too: "I'll just see how far this life carries me. There's a lot left to be described. My life could have been otherwise but it wasn't."
Sometime that made me restive, like driving on a straight road through the same landscape for days.
Sometime that ended up in spectacular unexpected places.
Sometimes his writing about writing is breathtaking: "There is a wonderful "brainlessness" to novel writing. I mean that you are using so much of your mind you forget that it exists."
Sometimes his writing about life is breathtaking too: "I'll just see how far this life carries me. There's a lot left to be described. My life could have been otherwise but it wasn't."
July 28, 2020
“On Saturday mornings I’d take our daughter, Jamie, about two at the time, on visits to the farms run by the agricultural department of the university. Together we studied pigs, cows, chickens, and horses. Of all farm animals horses have the best natural odor. It was pleasant, albeit melancholy, to see these animals anew through a child’s eyes and fantasize about living on a small, remote farm where I’d make a simple living and study my Rimbaud in peace. Never at the time could I admit my unlikely candidacy for marriage, the statistically pathetic chances for success when a young man just shy of twenty-one marries a girl two days short of nineteen. At the time our main instruments of survival were a profound sexual happiness and the fascination of caring for the child. There was also the growing interest in something good for dinner every evening, keeping in mind the minimal budget which in itself promotes good cooking. Over the years I’ve noted how rarely divorce occurs when a couple happily cooks together, which also promotes a free sensuality in the bedroom, or wherever for that matter. Making love in a car, a pine grove, or a pasture did wonders for what they insist on calling ‘mental health.’”
December 3, 2020
“My life could have been otherwise, but it wasn’t” This is the last line of Jim Harrison’s delightful memoir, Off to the Side.
Harrison is a naturalist, sportsman and beautiful writer. The memoir is filled with insights and reminisces, gritty and full of food, alcohol, friends, books, bird dogs and fishing as are his novels and novellas. Harrison is an American treasure.
An apt quote of Harrison’s – “It's what you do, not what you don't do.”
Harrison is a naturalist, sportsman and beautiful writer. The memoir is filled with insights and reminisces, gritty and full of food, alcohol, friends, books, bird dogs and fishing as are his novels and novellas. Harrison is an American treasure.
An apt quote of Harrison’s – “It's what you do, not what you don't do.”
October 19, 2012
After falling in love with Harrison's fiction (True North, the novellas in Legends of the Fall,) I was eager to read this memoir that a friend - another Harrison lover - loaned me. Why is it, when we are taken with an author's writing, we wish to know more about his/her life and background? Sometimes it confirms our speculations, sometimes it adds new insights to the writing, and sometimes it sort of muddies our ideas of "who" this author is. This memoir did all of this for me.
In his fiction, Harrison artfully spans years and generations, sometimes within a paragraph. You do have to pay attention, but you never feel lost or plunked from time to time or place to place. In the memoir, he trawls all over the place and goes off on tangents, sometimes returning to his running narrative with an abrupt "Back to the early days." Luckily, his tangents are interesting and worth the ride. He also switches back and forth from his first person telling to the "you" of second person. I don't know if this is a technique of distancing himself or if it is meant to make his experience more universal, but I found it a little jarring, as it pulled me out of the storyline.
But those are just quibbles. This guy has lived an extraordinary life of art, has traveled and eaten and drunk widely and gloriously, and his body of work - fiction, poetry, essays, memoir, and children's fiction - is just as wide and glorious. His most famous book is probably Legends of the Fall, made into an award-winning film. Harrison writes of his years as a screenwriter, trying to adapt his books. After many years of living and supporting his family on roughly $10K/year, he's suddenly in the money (and then out of it again), and offers his version of being swallowed by the Hollywood machine and spit out the other side. Dude knows a lot of actors, directors, producers and other industry types, and seems to have become close friends with many of them, most notably, Jack Nicholson. Nicholson believed in Harrison enough to bankroll his living expenses for a year, and their friendship seems authentic, a relationship between men who like to live large (in living experience, not necessarily in buying it).
I have thought of Harrison as an extremely "male" writer, as a man's man, and this memoir confirms that. There is a long and honest section about his "Seven Obsessions" - alcohol; stripping [watching, not performing]; hunting, fishing (and dogs); private religion; France; taking solo road trips; and his immersion in nature and identification with American Natives. These preoccupations are carried throughout this book, and I've noticed his fiction abounds with these same thematic touchstones. Interestingly, he talks about hunting and fishing not as manly pursuits, and how that judgment came (from others) as our country became more urban/suburban. He offers many, many of these kinds of anthropological/sociological insights. I'd say the guy is a true observer, hence his chosen title.
But I'll stick with my sense of his über-maleness anyway. The man is exceedingly well-read, but of the dozens and dozens of authors he has read, met, admired, obsessed over, or otherwise referenced, the ones he names are nearly all male. Reminds me of an older male professor I had who worked at the public library in his town during the summers. He said women would read anyone, male or female, while men would only read other men. However, Harrison does note Native American author Linda Hogan, and mentions the novellas of Katherine Anne Porter and Isak Dinesen as influencing his decision to write his own novella, Legends of the Fall, so I'll give him points for that and bump it up to four stars.
In his fiction, Harrison artfully spans years and generations, sometimes within a paragraph. You do have to pay attention, but you never feel lost or plunked from time to time or place to place. In the memoir, he trawls all over the place and goes off on tangents, sometimes returning to his running narrative with an abrupt "Back to the early days." Luckily, his tangents are interesting and worth the ride. He also switches back and forth from his first person telling to the "you" of second person. I don't know if this is a technique of distancing himself or if it is meant to make his experience more universal, but I found it a little jarring, as it pulled me out of the storyline.
But those are just quibbles. This guy has lived an extraordinary life of art, has traveled and eaten and drunk widely and gloriously, and his body of work - fiction, poetry, essays, memoir, and children's fiction - is just as wide and glorious. His most famous book is probably Legends of the Fall, made into an award-winning film. Harrison writes of his years as a screenwriter, trying to adapt his books. After many years of living and supporting his family on roughly $10K/year, he's suddenly in the money (and then out of it again), and offers his version of being swallowed by the Hollywood machine and spit out the other side. Dude knows a lot of actors, directors, producers and other industry types, and seems to have become close friends with many of them, most notably, Jack Nicholson. Nicholson believed in Harrison enough to bankroll his living expenses for a year, and their friendship seems authentic, a relationship between men who like to live large (in living experience, not necessarily in buying it).
I have thought of Harrison as an extremely "male" writer, as a man's man, and this memoir confirms that. There is a long and honest section about his "Seven Obsessions" - alcohol; stripping [watching, not performing]; hunting, fishing (and dogs); private religion; France; taking solo road trips; and his immersion in nature and identification with American Natives. These preoccupations are carried throughout this book, and I've noticed his fiction abounds with these same thematic touchstones. Interestingly, he talks about hunting and fishing not as manly pursuits, and how that judgment came (from others) as our country became more urban/suburban. He offers many, many of these kinds of anthropological/sociological insights. I'd say the guy is a true observer, hence his chosen title.
But I'll stick with my sense of his über-maleness anyway. The man is exceedingly well-read, but of the dozens and dozens of authors he has read, met, admired, obsessed over, or otherwise referenced, the ones he names are nearly all male. Reminds me of an older male professor I had who worked at the public library in his town during the summers. He said women would read anyone, male or female, while men would only read other men. However, Harrison does note Native American author Linda Hogan, and mentions the novellas of Katherine Anne Porter and Isak Dinesen as influencing his decision to write his own novella, Legends of the Fall, so I'll give him points for that and bump it up to four stars.
April 15, 2025
Never heard of the guy, near the end it goes “why would anyone care about my memoir if they haven’t read my poetry or novels” well Jim I haven’t but plan to check one or two out in the future. Just seemed like a good ol boy to me, cool, gruff, outdoorsy, swarthy all the good thangs. Don’t think I’ll be reading another memoir anytime soon, sure there might be an exception but not terribly interesting to me. Kinda seemed like a personal endeavor and shouting out the homies who were along for the ride nice and all but meh
September 15, 2018
If you're a reader of Jim Harrison poetry and fiction etc, if you're a reader of literature of all kinds you might enjoy this memoir. It is a sort of rambling and I almost gave up on it but I am glad I read it and I would recommend it. The part I liked the least was his experiences in Hollywood. If you haven't read Harrison start with Dalva or his novella Legends of the Fall. He is a Michigan treasure.
November 27, 2023
It’s hard to explain why but I loved this book. I think I ought to reread it at some point. Overall, perfectly happy with this read.
Not much else to add to that.
Not much else to add to that.
June 4, 2012
Jim Harrison's memoir, Off to the Side, is just as gritty, scrutinizing, and lush as his novels and novellas. Harrison's life of the mind makes excellent reading, and he doesn't seem to make any excuses for his failures or take too much credit for his successes.
Harrison's work in Hollywood gave him access and interesting insight into show business during the eighties and nineties. His reflection on those times and his utter distaste for his life then is filled with witty observations and candid appraisals.
His writing has always been filled an intoxicating blend of wine, food, sex, and natural history. Harrison's descriptions of his life and his process will be valuable and heartening to any aspiring writers. But more importantly, he reflection on a life lived with gusto and exuberance will be inspiring to any anybody who wants to live a life that is passionate and full of wonder.
Harrison's work in Hollywood gave him access and interesting insight into show business during the eighties and nineties. His reflection on those times and his utter distaste for his life then is filled with witty observations and candid appraisals.
His writing has always been filled an intoxicating blend of wine, food, sex, and natural history. Harrison's descriptions of his life and his process will be valuable and heartening to any aspiring writers. But more importantly, he reflection on a life lived with gusto and exuberance will be inspiring to any anybody who wants to live a life that is passionate and full of wonder.
July 30, 2016
I really wanted to like this book. Really did. I tried to read it several years ago and could not get through it. Tried again after Harrison's death and I still did not like it any better.
I feel bad for Harrison. Like a lot of us, he lived a very contradictory life. But I ended up feeling bad for him. Unfortunately, not sure I would have liked the guy if I had known him. And that's too bad, because like the book, I really wanted to like him. I just didn't.
I feel bad for Harrison. Like a lot of us, he lived a very contradictory life. But I ended up feeling bad for him. Unfortunately, not sure I would have liked the guy if I had known him. And that's too bad, because like the book, I really wanted to like him. I just didn't.
September 12, 2011
Just finished rereading Jim Harrison's memoir, 'Off to the Side' - which I first read ten years ago - and it strikes me upon this second reading that what drew me to it in the first place was that it seemed to describe a 'writing life' that I aspired to. Ten years on, I now have that life, the life of a writer. 'Off to the Side' is easily one of my top ten books, fiction or non-fiction.
February 8, 2009
the man is a genius. john mcphee's prose is clear and simple and proof of extensive editing. jim h's prose is robust, muscular, full of throwaway lines--it pretends to have escaped the editor but, of course, this cannot be true.
November 28, 2007
One of my favourite writers of all time. I take him a little at a time.
September 18, 2018
This is what Hemmingway's Nick Adams stories would be if they didn't suck.
August 2, 2022
Jim Harrison se dévoile! C'est parfois très intéressant, avec des réflexions intéressantes sur la vie - pourquoi comment - sans aller vers la prise de tête. Jim Harrison étant, a priori, quelqu'un de bien, ça donne une vision de la vie pas mal non plus, même si pas forcément reproductible au commun des mortels.
C'est parfois un rien incompréhensible, on voit que l'auteur suit son propre raisonnement... mais on reste juste un peu sur le côté, à lire des pensées qui ne semblent mener à rien. Parfois on raccroche, et parfois pas, ce qui est, il faut bien l'avouer, un peu pas très intéressant.
Et enfin, c'est parfois (bien que rarement) carrément pas intéressant: une approche simplement biographique, qui n'apporte pas grand chose au récit. Ou peut-être que c'est une sorte de mélange entre quelque chose de trop éloigné du commun des mortels, et dont j'ai complétement décroché? Ce qui expliquerait mon désintérêt...
Mais bon, Jim Harrison aime la France, alors comment ne pas l'aimer, lui aussi?
Non je rigole, mais j'ai vraiment apprécié l'humilité certaine avec laquelle il raconte ses déboires, ses luttes pour survivre (mais oui, il en était là), et puis comment il a écrit Dalva, qui reste un de mes romans fétiches par dessus tout...
C'est parfois un rien incompréhensible, on voit que l'auteur suit son propre raisonnement... mais on reste juste un peu sur le côté, à lire des pensées qui ne semblent mener à rien. Parfois on raccroche, et parfois pas, ce qui est, il faut bien l'avouer, un peu pas très intéressant.
Et enfin, c'est parfois (bien que rarement) carrément pas intéressant: une approche simplement biographique, qui n'apporte pas grand chose au récit. Ou peut-être que c'est une sorte de mélange entre quelque chose de trop éloigné du commun des mortels, et dont j'ai complétement décroché? Ce qui expliquerait mon désintérêt...
Mais bon, Jim Harrison aime la France, alors comment ne pas l'aimer, lui aussi?
Non je rigole, mais j'ai vraiment apprécié l'humilité certaine avec laquelle il raconte ses déboires, ses luttes pour survivre (mais oui, il en était là), et puis comment il a écrit Dalva, qui reste un de mes romans fétiches par dessus tout...
February 19, 2023
I like all his books especially the UP
Jim Harrison traces his upbringing in Michigan amid the austerities of the Depression and the Second World War, and the seemingly greater austerities of his starchy Swedish forebears. He chronicles his coming-of-age, from a boy drunk with books to a young man making his way among fellow writers he deeply admires — including Peter Matthiessen, Robert Lowell, W.H. Auden, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, and Allen Ginsberg. Harrison discusses forthrightly the life-changing experience of becoming a father, and the minor cognitive dissonance that ensued when this boy from the "heartland" somehow ended up a highly paid Hollywood screenwriter. He gives free rein to his "seven obsessions" — alcohol, food, stripping, hunting and fishing (and the dogs who have accompanied him in both), religion, the road, and our place in the natural world — which he elucidates with earthy wisdom and an elegant sense of connectedness. Off to the Side is a work of great beauty and importance, a triumphant achievement that captures the writing life and brings all of us clues for living.
Jim Harrison traces his upbringing in Michigan amid the austerities of the Depression and the Second World War, and the seemingly greater austerities of his starchy Swedish forebears. He chronicles his coming-of-age, from a boy drunk with books to a young man making his way among fellow writers he deeply admires — including Peter Matthiessen, Robert Lowell, W.H. Auden, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, and Allen Ginsberg. Harrison discusses forthrightly the life-changing experience of becoming a father, and the minor cognitive dissonance that ensued when this boy from the "heartland" somehow ended up a highly paid Hollywood screenwriter. He gives free rein to his "seven obsessions" — alcohol, food, stripping, hunting and fishing (and the dogs who have accompanied him in both), religion, the road, and our place in the natural world — which he elucidates with earthy wisdom and an elegant sense of connectedness. Off to the Side is a work of great beauty and importance, a triumphant achievement that captures the writing life and brings all of us clues for living.
January 16, 2018
Off to the side by Jim Harrison
Off to The Side is a masterfully self written autobiography, in which readers are set to the upbringing point of view of Jim Harrison’s rough childhood in Michigan. In which his family faced the adversities of being financially unstable, and being witnesses and the forced need of living through rough conditions of the infamous events of the Great Depression and World War II. With all these tough adversities his only escape is literary. As a young boy, whom he was filled with books, had lead him into his young adolescent dreams of meeting his idols, in which he has deeply admired throughout his early life. To being put in a highly honored screenwriter of a Hollywood movie. Throughout the unfolding events of his life, he’s been named father, welcoming a new life to the world. Through his eyes of these experiences, Harrisons listing of obsessions and the wisdom of humbleness he presents, has helped him become a person of thought and purpose. Every event is an exposure to his reality as human with the power of literature. This book is best recommended to the people who love to follow up on best known authors life’s, in which you can learn more about the author and follow with the point of view.
I recommend this book to the readers who would like to be captured by the author's personal life and the personal connection one can make with the author's life. However, it may change the perspectives upon the author due to these exposure of his life and experiences. But as an author like Jim Harrison, who is mainly know for his novel Legends of The Fall, has caught many readers attention to read his piece of literature of his own personal life.
Off to The Side is a masterfully self written autobiography, in which readers are set to the upbringing point of view of Jim Harrison’s rough childhood in Michigan. In which his family faced the adversities of being financially unstable, and being witnesses and the forced need of living through rough conditions of the infamous events of the Great Depression and World War II. With all these tough adversities his only escape is literary. As a young boy, whom he was filled with books, had lead him into his young adolescent dreams of meeting his idols, in which he has deeply admired throughout his early life. To being put in a highly honored screenwriter of a Hollywood movie. Throughout the unfolding events of his life, he’s been named father, welcoming a new life to the world. Through his eyes of these experiences, Harrisons listing of obsessions and the wisdom of humbleness he presents, has helped him become a person of thought and purpose. Every event is an exposure to his reality as human with the power of literature. This book is best recommended to the people who love to follow up on best known authors life’s, in which you can learn more about the author and follow with the point of view.
I recommend this book to the readers who would like to be captured by the author's personal life and the personal connection one can make with the author's life. However, it may change the perspectives upon the author due to these exposure of his life and experiences. But as an author like Jim Harrison, who is mainly know for his novel Legends of The Fall, has caught many readers attention to read his piece of literature of his own personal life.
February 12, 2025
There's no doubt that Jim Harrison is one helluva writer. I've always enjoyed his travel pieces. In this memoir, he opens up about nearly everything in his life. Being a writer, I was interested in his life as a writer. Although he identified primarily as a poet, I thought his fiction was superior. Enough of my opinion about his writing. Harrison writes about the silliness in Hollywood and the pettiness in New York. He tells about his meeting people such as Jack Nicholson, Kevin Costner, and a few other luminaries. I was impressed by his reading list; no doubt he was a voracious reader. Something all writers should adhere to if they want to improve their craft. I was moved by his upbringing in Michigan, and how he was devastated by the deaths of his father and sister in a car accident. Harrison loved family and it shows in his relationship with his wife, Linda, and their children. He had a strong work ethic, despite some problems with alcohol and drugs, from his parents. This is a damn good read, especially for writers.
February 7, 2017
A pleasure to delve so intimately into the thinking of this favorite writer. Many times when you've experienced a lot of a writer's work you've been able to discern a life from him. I haven't always been pleased with Harrison's stories. Brown Dog is a favorite character though. But I do share his love of the great outdoors and a desire to preserve individuality, and to think of artists outside the boundaries of the major metropolises as more than just "regional".
He's the most fun when he's spouting some anger about something, but he reserves his best poetics for the natural world -- and I hope the animals came to his funeral.
He's the most fun when he's spouting some anger about something, but he reserves his best poetics for the natural world -- and I hope the animals came to his funeral.
March 27, 2019
The first half of “Off to the Side” reminded me of my disappointment at many of Harrison’s last novels (and why it sat unread on my shelve for many years). He philosophizes, he meanders, he writes on points that are dated three years after his death and 17 years after this memoir was published (a whole section on strippers?). In the second half, though, Harrison finally focuses on his life story - the rural Michigan upbringing, an early marriage, unhappy attempts at a conventional job and teaching, lean years as a poet and writer, and finally, success.
December 12, 2019
I wish I had once met the author of this amusing and poignant memoir, Jim Harrison. A hearty, full meal of a man; robust, sensual, engaging, spiritual, and unique. As he spins his life’s tale, I was drawn in to the experiences and connections which he’d made. I was amused at his adventures, awed by his incomplete male only catalogue of friends, enlightened about the screenwriters role in entertainment, and intrigued by his sportsman’s life in the natural world. This memoir is to be savored. A very good read.
September 14, 2020
Engaging, surprising, a bit long
I enjoyed reading about Jim Harrison's life because of the original way he writes about it and because of his eventful life itself. His writing made me laugh quite a few times. I appreciated his wry humor and astute ability to point out many absurdities of modern life. His self deprecating take on himself was a lesson in humility. He's a great storyteller. I would have given the book 5 stars if I hadn't been so desperate for a comma or two by the end of his long rambles. Still, it was a fascinating read.
I enjoyed reading about Jim Harrison's life because of the original way he writes about it and because of his eventful life itself. His writing made me laugh quite a few times. I appreciated his wry humor and astute ability to point out many absurdities of modern life. His self deprecating take on himself was a lesson in humility. He's a great storyteller. I would have given the book 5 stars if I hadn't been so desperate for a comma or two by the end of his long rambles. Still, it was a fascinating read.
May 23, 2017
I've been reading all of Jim Harrison. This memoir was interesting in that he has interesting to things to say about loss, poverty, travel, Hollywood and nature. I am not fond of his gourmand books (odd foods and gluttony) but I did like this book as well as some of his poetry books. I've only read one work of fiction so far. We'll see. If you are going to be reading Jim Harrison yourself, start with this book.
August 22, 2017
I've not been interested in reading writers' memoirs. I just want to read their work. But Ive read so much of Harrison's work since I discovered him when I lived near him in northern Michigan in the '80s that I read his memoir. It was worth it. You learn a lot about the man, his views on life and the writer's life, the publishing industry and Hollywood. Readers and writers will enjoy this memoir.
September 2, 2017
I was so sorry when Jim Harrison passed in March 2016, having been an avid reader of his work for the last 20+ years. His life was the embodiment of every bottle of wine he drank, and every 7 course meal he ever consumed -- robust, intoxicating, delicious. It was a big life for which he humbly accepted responsibility with no regrets. As he said, "My life could have been otherwise but it wasn't." There are many fans of his work who are certainly glad it wasn't.
November 4, 2022
Le bon vieux Jim nous raconte sa vie par bribes avec humour, honnêteté, sans fard, mais toujours avec une grande profondeur, dans un souci de joindre les deux bouts du réel que sont l'esprit et la matière. Toutes ses passions y passent: la pêche, les chiens, l'alcool, la bonne chère, ses voyages, ses amis, la littérature, le cinéma. Il nous parle également de sa vision de ce qu'est écrire, au quotidien. Un livre extraordinaire, malgré son côté un peu désordonné.
October 1, 2020
This was technically a reread, as I was looking for a way into rereading the fifteen or sixteen Harrisons on my shelves. He observes somewhere in here that he enjoys the anonymity of writing fiction-of disappearing into characters that don't exist. He contrasts that with his poetry where he is essentially mining himself. Heartfelt and self-deprecating tale of a life fully lived.
April 11, 2023
A disappointment. The memoir started off compellingly enough but very shortly the author seemed to have an unwholesome obsession with talking about the baser aspects of life. He also writes in riddles as if daring the reader to figure out what he means or as if he is trying to impress.
Not recommended (not by me, anyway).
Not recommended (not by me, anyway).
March 20, 2025
Some passages were boring and others profound. Harrison says toward the end that he assumes any reader of the book will be a fan of his other work because why the hell would you read this memoir otherwise? I am not a fan of his other work, though I do anticipate being so one day. I can only assume that is why the book wasn’t as impactful as it obviously was for so many others.
October 12, 2022
Pretty good. Very well written, a pleasure to read. I have read Legends of the Fall and liked the title story but was luke warm on the other two, but after reading this I'll try some of his other work.
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