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Dalva #2
The Road Home
The Road Home lies in the shadows of Manifest Destiny and Wounded Knee; it is etched into the landscape of an old man's memory and into the stubborn dreams of a young man's heart. In one of Jim Harrison’s greatest works, five members of the Northridge family narrate the tangled epic of their history on the expanses of the Nebraska plains. They strive to understand their fates, to reconcile with demons of the past, to live in accordance with the land and to die with grace. As the family grapples with the mysterious forces that both pull them apart and draw them inextricably back together, they must come to term with life's greatest and hardest the deception of passion, the pain of love, the vitality of art, and the supplication to nature's generosity and fury.
464 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
323 people are currently reading
1938 people want to read
About the author
Jim Harrison
185 books1,486 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 149 reviews
August 13, 2016
This book was......
- Both a sequel and a prequel to Dalva, a continuation; but, no, it is really a re-telling, much like the three books of Shadow Country re-tell the same story but from different points of view and in different styles. This does not have SC's structural genius, however. The voice of Dalva, telling a family's sordid saga, was largely in her voice, and Dalva speaks here too, but only at the end, and after her grandfather, her son, her mother and her uncle have their say. You could read this book without having read Dalva first, I suppose. Because it's not just a story. It's other stuff. But I want you all to fall in love with Dalva and you really need to savor the eponymous work to have that chance. And....The Road Home doesn't tell you what those skeletons in U.S. Calvary uniforms are doing in the sub-basement, one with a bullet hole in the skull's forehead.
- An Art Appreciation course. (Are you listening, Kalliope?) Mostly contemporary American artists: Glackens, Piazzoni, Bellows, Dixon and Sloan. They're on the walls.
- A cookbook. Not just what they're eating but how to make it, from Spam sandwiches to Crème Brûlée. And of course the perfect wine to drink with each. Spices including ginger, fennel, also the flavor of garlic and cilantro, hot chiles. These are a few of his favorite things.
-A Sex Manual. No, really. Why use a bed when a sandbar, a shelterbelt or a truck fender work just as well or better.
- Literary criticism. But I'm not Keats, she insisted, to which I answered, Neither is he, but aside from his work he is an accumulation of our opinions about him. These discussions tended to become humorous. Last year when she passed on to me By Love Possessed by the current most critically acclaimed American author, James Gould Cozzens, I said that Cozzens reminded me of that farting old mare that used to pull the milk wagon around town.
And for you Proustians: Neena was quite the Francophile and I remember back in the thirties when I came back in the house from branding and she was reading Proust at the kitchen table. I was bruised, soiled and hungry and so were the boys and she looked up as if we were aliens. We were suddenly quite sure she had forgotten dinner but she nodded to the dining room and then went back to her book. It was a hot day and there was a turkey roasted and chilled, a potato salad, a green salad, my bottle of whiskey, a bottle of white wine on ice, a pitcher of lemonade for the boys, and a rhubarb pie. For some reason I hesitate to write about my wife, whether our joys or our horrors, as if the marriage were a fundamental sacrament that might lose its worth if babbled about.
- Political thought. The common political fantasy was simply to maintain America as a safe place to do business, which was short rations indeed for a young girl scrubbing a meatloaf pan at a cafe. And: The other day I said I was leaving a travel fund for her and the girls and if she did not use it each year the accumulated interest would go to the NRA in her name, scarcely her favorite organization. This brought on a pink-tinged "Why in God's name?" I said that there were plenty of good places for soul making on earth and she should at east take a look.
- Ruminations. Of fathers and sons: Dear Nelse: Why not live the way you want to? What do any of us really know about how our children should live, short of trying to prevent them from ending up in prison. Keep an eye on your mother whom we both know doesn't have both oars in the water. Love, Dad. Of United States treatment of Native Americans: We have rebuilt Germany in a scant dozen years and have utterly ignored our first citizens, and are confident in this sodden theocracy that the God of Moses and Jesus has been quite enthused over our every move. Love: The sparrow flew past the window and the length of that flying moment seemed to represent the length of my life. I took the photo of Adele out of the safe and gazed at it on my desk, tilting it this way and that. I fell asleep with my cheek, I should say my wattles, pressed against it. Distance: One night a few years back while camped on a mountain saddle I awoke and some sort of visual distortion led me to believe that the moon and Venus were but a few feet away, and the stars that surrounded them only a few feet further. I was instantly covered in sweat, and jumped from my sleeping bag to stoke my juniper fire out of trepidation. But maybe they aren't really that far away if you think of the relative meaninglessness of distance. I think it was Heraclitus who said that the moon is the width of a woman's thigh. And Death: I smiled, remembering when I'd asked my father what happened when we died while he and Lundquist were butchering a steer. He turned to me with bloody hands and said, "If it's nothing we won't know it," while Lundquist just behind him shook his head and rolled his eyes. I went back to the house and asked the same question of my mother who looked up from a book and said, "I have no idea." As the sky got lighter the dogs ranged further and I supposed the central thing about loving someone is that it very much made you want to continue living.
It's time again to stoke my juniper fire with this author, who makes me smell and taste, to not be so afraid of the cold; to want to continue living.
- Both a sequel and a prequel to Dalva, a continuation; but, no, it is really a re-telling, much like the three books of Shadow Country re-tell the same story but from different points of view and in different styles. This does not have SC's structural genius, however. The voice of Dalva, telling a family's sordid saga, was largely in her voice, and Dalva speaks here too, but only at the end, and after her grandfather, her son, her mother and her uncle have their say. You could read this book without having read Dalva first, I suppose. Because it's not just a story. It's other stuff. But I want you all to fall in love with Dalva and you really need to savor the eponymous work to have that chance. And....The Road Home doesn't tell you what those skeletons in U.S. Calvary uniforms are doing in the sub-basement, one with a bullet hole in the skull's forehead.
- An Art Appreciation course. (Are you listening, Kalliope?) Mostly contemporary American artists: Glackens, Piazzoni, Bellows, Dixon and Sloan. They're on the walls.
- A cookbook. Not just what they're eating but how to make it, from Spam sandwiches to Crème Brûlée. And of course the perfect wine to drink with each. Spices including ginger, fennel, also the flavor of garlic and cilantro, hot chiles. These are a few of his favorite things.
-A Sex Manual. No, really. Why use a bed when a sandbar, a shelterbelt or a truck fender work just as well or better.
- Literary criticism. But I'm not Keats, she insisted, to which I answered, Neither is he, but aside from his work he is an accumulation of our opinions about him. These discussions tended to become humorous. Last year when she passed on to me By Love Possessed by the current most critically acclaimed American author, James Gould Cozzens, I said that Cozzens reminded me of that farting old mare that used to pull the milk wagon around town.
And for you Proustians: Neena was quite the Francophile and I remember back in the thirties when I came back in the house from branding and she was reading Proust at the kitchen table. I was bruised, soiled and hungry and so were the boys and she looked up as if we were aliens. We were suddenly quite sure she had forgotten dinner but she nodded to the dining room and then went back to her book. It was a hot day and there was a turkey roasted and chilled, a potato salad, a green salad, my bottle of whiskey, a bottle of white wine on ice, a pitcher of lemonade for the boys, and a rhubarb pie. For some reason I hesitate to write about my wife, whether our joys or our horrors, as if the marriage were a fundamental sacrament that might lose its worth if babbled about.
- Political thought. The common political fantasy was simply to maintain America as a safe place to do business, which was short rations indeed for a young girl scrubbing a meatloaf pan at a cafe. And: The other day I said I was leaving a travel fund for her and the girls and if she did not use it each year the accumulated interest would go to the NRA in her name, scarcely her favorite organization. This brought on a pink-tinged "Why in God's name?" I said that there were plenty of good places for soul making on earth and she should at east take a look.
- Ruminations. Of fathers and sons: Dear Nelse: Why not live the way you want to? What do any of us really know about how our children should live, short of trying to prevent them from ending up in prison. Keep an eye on your mother whom we both know doesn't have both oars in the water. Love, Dad. Of United States treatment of Native Americans: We have rebuilt Germany in a scant dozen years and have utterly ignored our first citizens, and are confident in this sodden theocracy that the God of Moses and Jesus has been quite enthused over our every move. Love: The sparrow flew past the window and the length of that flying moment seemed to represent the length of my life. I took the photo of Adele out of the safe and gazed at it on my desk, tilting it this way and that. I fell asleep with my cheek, I should say my wattles, pressed against it. Distance: One night a few years back while camped on a mountain saddle I awoke and some sort of visual distortion led me to believe that the moon and Venus were but a few feet away, and the stars that surrounded them only a few feet further. I was instantly covered in sweat, and jumped from my sleeping bag to stoke my juniper fire out of trepidation. But maybe they aren't really that far away if you think of the relative meaninglessness of distance. I think it was Heraclitus who said that the moon is the width of a woman's thigh. And Death: I smiled, remembering when I'd asked my father what happened when we died while he and Lundquist were butchering a steer. He turned to me with bloody hands and said, "If it's nothing we won't know it," while Lundquist just behind him shook his head and rolled his eyes. I went back to the house and asked the same question of my mother who looked up from a book and said, "I have no idea." As the sky got lighter the dogs ranged further and I supposed the central thing about loving someone is that it very much made you want to continue living.
It's time again to stoke my juniper fire with this author, who makes me smell and taste, to not be so afraid of the cold; to want to continue living.
August 24, 2009
At least one sentence or concept takes my breath away on every page of this 400 page book. The kind of book that breaks your heart with the simple realities of humanity. Full of history, birds, adventure and love. I read Dalva first, but the books can go in either order really.
January 19, 2010
"The Road Home" is epic but grounded firmly in reality to a depth few writers attempt to explore, or are capable of exploring. Harrison writes in the article "Bar Pool": "I seek the substantial in life." It's one of my favorite quotes and gives you a sense of what you'll find on each page of any of his works, "The Road Home" included. A single paragraph of Harrison's contains more of life than many full novels and I have to consciously pare down my expectations when reading other writers. I rushed into Harrison's work once first exposed but have started pacing myself so that I'll always have some of his books to look forward to, just as I always save a bite of my favorite dish on the plate for last.
January 4, 2013
Quite a disappointment after the nearly flawless Dalva!
In fact, while reading 'The Road Home' I had to dig out my copy of Dalva, which I'd read a couple of years ago and remembered as admirable and far-reaching, to compare passages to this sequel. No, not to look for forgotten facts or characters, but to see if for some reason I had missed the the irritating vibes I was getting from TRH. Well, no again, Dalva still holds up and has none of the annoying elements that taints TRH to the point of almost completely spoiling it, namely:
1)Pedantry! This will kill a novel for me faster than than you can say "the moral of the story is"... I really cannot imagine why Harrison feels the need to hammer in history and morality lessons through the none too lucid ruminations of nearly every character. Is he really not aware that he's preching to the choir? Does he really consider his readers needful of frequent heavy-handed injections of aphorisms and other pointed bits of wisdom?
2)A veritable exhibition of artistic, literary, culinary and oenological (more wine!)and, not to be forgotten, musical references are paraded out incessantly from each character's narrative. For what real reason, I can't imagine; but the end result is an unavoidable impression that all of the characters speak with the same voice: "We are very sophisticated, educated and well-travelled, yet we are true prairie people. Really, we are!"
3)Pretentious hypocrisy: This pops up regularly throughout the novel,filtered through nearly all of the characters. A pretentious, hypocritical, excessive, dishonest, or in any other way "unlikable" character never presents a problem for me. I am the last to judge others, especially people on paper. But each and every character gives a lot of lip service to the wrongdoings of others and the evils of seeking wealth while glibly partaking of the feast. This tendancy permeates the whole novel, and added to the above-listed pedantry and name-dropping becomes simply exasperating. But hey, perhaps I can analyse it this way: the whole Northridge family line is basically one and the same. This entity, or symbolic character feels guilty for having stolen the land from the Native Americans, but did it anyway. A few links to the decimated tribes color (literally) the Northridge sentiments, but at the end of the day, not a single Northridge is going to live in a tar-paper shack on the res' even though the same Northridge entity likes to visit there and display kinship with his vanquished cousins. So, one branch (Dalva) becomes a social worker to try and right some wrongs, another (Paul) helps the Hopi and T'ohono Odom with mineral leases, etc. Yet they are blinded and eternally condemned by their lineage to deny their own hypocrisy and blame others instead. Is that the point of the novel? I really wonder; to give just a few examples:
SPOILER ALERT
Paul, who seems fairly level-headed and perhaps exempt from the Northridge "curse" remarks, after admitting to himself that "When I tried to help both the T'ohono Odom and the Hopi with mineral leases I noted that they had a cultural hesitancy to take advantage of anything whereas it is the bedrock of our culture. Up in my own country it was apparently our nature to kill seventy million buffalo just as it was our nature to destroy the Native cultures. History will not help your soul clap your hands and sing but it is unquestionable to proceed without knowing it. In college I was obsessed with the beauty of studying the morphology of rivers but then all the jobs in the area were the enemy of rivers (...) There is great beauty in the study of geology but not in its use. I suppose I could have taught it in its purest form but good colleges and universities are invariably in locations I don't care to live." See what I mean? Guilt and conscience emerge, but then he takes a nose-dive into pretentious crapola. GOOD universities? What, you are too good to work in a state university tucked into a fine corner of the West? Lo and behold!
The second example is our darling Dalva, who, upon needing more extensive medical exams, opts not for the nearest Nebraskan medical center , or even the Mayo Clinic, but must fly out to New York City, first class, for "privacy". While there, she laments that her poor 'clients' from her social working days have such limited access to quality healthcare. See what I mean, again?
Finally, if you've read my rant to the end, let me say that I admire Harrison's talent and found some wondrous passages in this novel. There is also a strong element of magnetic, physical attraction to the land that comes through in a poetic way. But the Northridge curse, alas ... sigh.
In fact, while reading 'The Road Home' I had to dig out my copy of Dalva, which I'd read a couple of years ago and remembered as admirable and far-reaching, to compare passages to this sequel. No, not to look for forgotten facts or characters, but to see if for some reason I had missed the the irritating vibes I was getting from TRH. Well, no again, Dalva still holds up and has none of the annoying elements that taints TRH to the point of almost completely spoiling it, namely:
1)Pedantry! This will kill a novel for me faster than than you can say "the moral of the story is"... I really cannot imagine why Harrison feels the need to hammer in history and morality lessons through the none too lucid ruminations of nearly every character. Is he really not aware that he's preching to the choir? Does he really consider his readers needful of frequent heavy-handed injections of aphorisms and other pointed bits of wisdom?
2)A veritable exhibition of artistic, literary, culinary and oenological (more wine!)and, not to be forgotten, musical references are paraded out incessantly from each character's narrative. For what real reason, I can't imagine; but the end result is an unavoidable impression that all of the characters speak with the same voice: "We are very sophisticated, educated and well-travelled, yet we are true prairie people. Really, we are!"
3)Pretentious hypocrisy: This pops up regularly throughout the novel,filtered through nearly all of the characters. A pretentious, hypocritical, excessive, dishonest, or in any other way "unlikable" character never presents a problem for me. I am the last to judge others, especially people on paper. But each and every character gives a lot of lip service to the wrongdoings of others and the evils of seeking wealth while glibly partaking of the feast. This tendancy permeates the whole novel, and added to the above-listed pedantry and name-dropping becomes simply exasperating. But hey, perhaps I can analyse it this way: the whole Northridge family line is basically one and the same. This entity, or symbolic character feels guilty for having stolen the land from the Native Americans, but did it anyway. A few links to the decimated tribes color (literally) the Northridge sentiments, but at the end of the day, not a single Northridge is going to live in a tar-paper shack on the res' even though the same Northridge entity likes to visit there and display kinship with his vanquished cousins. So, one branch (Dalva) becomes a social worker to try and right some wrongs, another (Paul) helps the Hopi and T'ohono Odom with mineral leases, etc. Yet they are blinded and eternally condemned by their lineage to deny their own hypocrisy and blame others instead. Is that the point of the novel? I really wonder; to give just a few examples:
SPOILER ALERT
Paul, who seems fairly level-headed and perhaps exempt from the Northridge "curse" remarks, after admitting to himself that "When I tried to help both the T'ohono Odom and the Hopi with mineral leases I noted that they had a cultural hesitancy to take advantage of anything whereas it is the bedrock of our culture. Up in my own country it was apparently our nature to kill seventy million buffalo just as it was our nature to destroy the Native cultures. History will not help your soul clap your hands and sing but it is unquestionable to proceed without knowing it. In college I was obsessed with the beauty of studying the morphology of rivers but then all the jobs in the area were the enemy of rivers (...) There is great beauty in the study of geology but not in its use. I suppose I could have taught it in its purest form but good colleges and universities are invariably in locations I don't care to live." See what I mean? Guilt and conscience emerge, but then he takes a nose-dive into pretentious crapola. GOOD universities? What, you are too good to work in a state university tucked into a fine corner of the West? Lo and behold!
The second example is our darling Dalva, who, upon needing more extensive medical exams, opts not for the nearest Nebraskan medical center , or even the Mayo Clinic, but must fly out to New York City, first class, for "privacy". While there, she laments that her poor 'clients' from her social working days have such limited access to quality healthcare. See what I mean, again?
Finally, if you've read my rant to the end, let me say that I admire Harrison's talent and found some wondrous passages in this novel. There is also a strong element of magnetic, physical attraction to the land that comes through in a poetic way. But the Northridge curse, alas ... sigh.
June 7, 2013
Jim Harrison's Dalva is one of my favorite books that I've read over the past couple of years, and The Road Home is a companion to it. The stories of several main characters from Dalva are continued, while some who were in the background in Dalva step into the limelight, and others fade into the background.
Harrison writes the stories of these people (calling them only characters really sells Harrison's creation short) with such love and thoughtfulness that I find them completely captivating. This is one of those books where I find myself mentally settling into their world, so much so that it takes several minutes to return to the "real" world when I stopped reading for the night.
There is humor, love, and pain throughout, all written in a way that rings very true to me. As with Wendell Berry's work, this novel forces you to slow down and consider each phrase as you read, lest you miss something marvelous. Most highly recommended (though I would read Dalva first).
Harrison writes the stories of these people (calling them only characters really sells Harrison's creation short) with such love and thoughtfulness that I find them completely captivating. This is one of those books where I find myself mentally settling into their world, so much so that it takes several minutes to return to the "real" world when I stopped reading for the night.
There is humor, love, and pain throughout, all written in a way that rings very true to me. As with Wendell Berry's work, this novel forces you to slow down and consider each phrase as you read, lest you miss something marvelous. Most highly recommended (though I would read Dalva first).
March 21, 2018
I loved this book. I just finished Jim Harrison’s DALVA, which I also loved - and I was thrilled to discover that he’d written a ‘part 2’ with A ROAD HOME. This book answered all the questions I had when I finished Dalva and gave me so much more. Jim Harrison is a wonderful and very descriptive writer. Every time I read him I want to hop in the car and drive out West for some exploring!
July 23, 2014
I woke up this morning missing the characters from The Road Home. As though we had met at a honky-tonk at some backroads junction and had a great time and now they've moved on down the road, leaving me behind. That's how finely drawn they were, how deeply interesting each of them became. The novel is divided into books, each told from the voice of five individuals, and each of them present in form or memory in the lives of the other four. It is, in structure, a family memoir and a study of the Great Plains of Nebraska, but it is also a marvelous late-night conversation with one of the finest iconoclastic minds writing today, Jim Harrison. The book was published in 1998, but among the topics that are dead-on relevant today: inequality ("I like both my rich and poor friends but with the former I don't care for the shields, the barriers, the distances that keep them from all but their equals in wealth. Life is short. Why not be familiar with all of it?"); the public sphere ("I've often had the feeling that as I grow older the country is becoming more primitive, certainly more stupid and impolite... You are forever dodging the invisible shrapnel of free-floating contentiousness. You are frankly suspect if you don't act appropriately dead within the market-driven mono-ethic of pay and shut up.") and my personal favorite: "The mainstream of any culture tends to be less than admirable."
Harrison has been out riding the trail of American culture for more than 30 years, picking up in the West the tracks of Faulkner in the South. His prose is inseparable from his environment, as spare and succinct as the landscapes his characters inhabit, and that, my reader friends, is true art. The Road Home brought me back to Harrison, and I look forward to curling up at his feet again soon.
Harrison has been out riding the trail of American culture for more than 30 years, picking up in the West the tracks of Faulkner in the South. His prose is inseparable from his environment, as spare and succinct as the landscapes his characters inhabit, and that, my reader friends, is true art. The Road Home brought me back to Harrison, and I look forward to curling up at his feet again soon.
September 23, 2021
Easily the best book I've read so far this year, with absolutely gorgeous prose, stunningly complex and interesting characters, and an informed descriptions of and passion for the natural world. It's also quite impressive to me how the breadth of Harrison's knowledge of other literary works, as so many of them impacted the characters he writes. Call me skeptical but I'm amazed and surprised when I read a novel in which the characters that are geologists actually know something about geology and characters that are birders actually understand birding, at least to some degree.
This is the first book by Jim Harrison I've ever read, but it won't be the last. I wonder how many I can get through by the end of the year...
This is the first book by Jim Harrison I've ever read, but it won't be the last. I wonder how many I can get through by the end of the year...
July 3, 2014
I'm really at a loss for why Jim Harrison isn't considered one of the greatest living writers. The Road Home is as close to perfect as you can get in contemporary fiction. The Road Home also achieves that rare feet of surpassing its prequel, the equally fantastic 'Dalva'. I can't name another author who can combine such a vivid, authentic sense of place with such complex, enthralling characters.
If I had to choose three books to bring to a desert island with me, these books would be an instant choice. They might even be my selection if limited to one book.
If I had to choose three books to bring to a desert island with me, these books would be an instant choice. They might even be my selection if limited to one book.
December 31, 2020
The Northridge family is a study in resilience, independence, and strong personalities. In this sequel to one of Jim Harrison’s most popular novels, we finally get to know some of the most fiercely interesting families in American literature, and even spend some time with Harrison’s most famous female character, Dalva Northridge.
We meet her womanizing grandfather, John Wesley, Jr.; her naturalist/ornithologist son, Nelse; her mother, Naomi; and her uncle, Paul; all of whom play a vital role in shaping Dalva’s experience in life. The challenges that the family encounter show us just how strong they are. Dalva features throughout and takes over as the narrator in the final act.
Harrison’s power has always been two-fold: he writes the natural world as only Cormac McCarthy can, and he writes strong-willed and interesting people like nobody else can. This is the longest but also most enjoyable of his long-form fiction. I’ll certainly never forget Dalva or her family.
I’m frankly angry with myself that I’ve been reading this since September. It’s been a bad reading year for me. I’ll fall well short of my 32-book goal. Next year, instead of going for quantity, I’m going for quality. I won’t set a goal until several months into the year.
I didn’t have a lot of fun reading this year (a few books made reading somewhat enjoyable), but I spent so much of the year being distracted or stressed, I couldn’t focus. We all know what that’s like.
We meet her womanizing grandfather, John Wesley, Jr.; her naturalist/ornithologist son, Nelse; her mother, Naomi; and her uncle, Paul; all of whom play a vital role in shaping Dalva’s experience in life. The challenges that the family encounter show us just how strong they are. Dalva features throughout and takes over as the narrator in the final act.
Harrison’s power has always been two-fold: he writes the natural world as only Cormac McCarthy can, and he writes strong-willed and interesting people like nobody else can. This is the longest but also most enjoyable of his long-form fiction. I’ll certainly never forget Dalva or her family.
I’m frankly angry with myself that I’ve been reading this since September. It’s been a bad reading year for me. I’ll fall well short of my 32-book goal. Next year, instead of going for quantity, I’m going for quality. I won’t set a goal until several months into the year.
I didn’t have a lot of fun reading this year (a few books made reading somewhat enjoyable), but I spent so much of the year being distracted or stressed, I couldn’t focus. We all know what that’s like.
December 25, 2010
The Road Home is a kind of sequel to Dalva, at least it takes up from that story and more or less fills in around it. As I said in my review of Dalva, I read Harrison now and then just to get grounded in every day life, and this book once again had that effect. It's quite a long Harrison novel, and is probably only for real fans of his work. It has five narrators: Dalva's grandfather, her son, her mother Naomi, her uncle Paul, and finally Dalva herself. Dalva's grandfather John Wesley Northridge is in many ways central to the whole tale, and gets a huge chunk to narrate, but I didn't find him a terribly likable human being. I was a little surprised that my favorite character in the whole saga turned out to be Naomi, with Paul coming in second. I actually wished they had narrated more. I don't think anyone should read this before reading Dalva, especially because it acts as a spoiler to that earlier novel. But if you loved Dalva, and love Harrison, you'll definitely want to read The Road Home.
June 15, 2025
4.5 stars.
Harrison writes beautifully and insightfully about the natural world of the American Midwest. He writes eloquently about human experience and relationships. And he writes scathingly about this nation's long-standing tradition of brutal mistreatment of its "first citizens."
Harrison writes beautifully and insightfully about the natural world of the American Midwest. He writes eloquently about human experience and relationships. And he writes scathingly about this nation's long-standing tradition of brutal mistreatment of its "first citizens."
I never feel more embarrassed as an American citizen than when I visit an Indian reservation. Nothing so much emphasizes our moral fraudulence than the way we treated these people from the time we hit shore to the last fifteen minutes. God must squint, turn his face and puke, when he’s not busy elsewhere. (275)
One need not read very deeply in history, despite the otiose trappings of patriotism, to see how irrationally vicious we were with our Natives. We have rebuilt Germany in a scant dozen years and have utterly ignored our first citizens, and are confident in this sodden theocracy that the God of Moses and Jesus has been quite enthused over our every move. (142)
May 14, 2022
This book is both a prequel and sequel to Jim Harrison's DALVA and written ten years after the original book. I was glad I could read them back-to-back rather than have to wait ten years to make sense of parts of Dalva's story that were left unanswered in the first book. This book consists of journal sections by Dalva's grandfather, John Northridge in the early and mid-50s, and then this is followed by journal entries written in 1986 (the same time frame as the earlier book) by Dalva's son that she gave up for adoption soon after his birth, Nelse; her mother, Naomi; her uncle, Paul and finishes in 1987 with a section by Dalva rounding out this complicated family history. The various journal entries allow us to have a mirror image of the person but also a critical examination of the different family members. At times, parts of their stories rambled and seemed too specific, but in the end the full story seems to come out. A good companion to the earlier book.
January 14, 2020
This was a hard book to read but I am happy I did. It is set in the sandhills of Nebraska. Multi generational story of a family that is part Native American. I love his description of nature.
February 26, 2025
Quel lecture. Un vrai moment de poésie et de vie, même si la fin est triste.
July 19, 2025
A very fine novel. Loved it. Harrison’s writing is astoundingly good.
April 2, 2016
I registered this book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/7424506
A story of a family. In it we meet, through their own words, John Wesley Northridge II,his son Paul, his daughter-in-law Naomi, Naomi's daughter Dalva, and Dalva's son Nelse. Other members of the family are mentioned by these five to fill out the family tree.
All of the entries are in the form of journals, journals that others know are being kept. The story begins with large entries by JW II, who is nearing death and writing about the past. We learn about his love of nature, his thoughts for his granddaughter Dalva and his son JW III. We learn that he has accumulated much in his life and is ready to leave it behind.
Interestingly, others in the family do not see JW II the same way he himself does. He is described as cold and demanding. Certainly there is some affection there but it is tempered.
Each of the entries brings us into the life of that person and his or her feelings for others and for nature. They all share, to different extents, a love of the outdoors and of birds in particular. Nelse even methodically makes notes of the birds he encounters on his wanderings, as if for a study (yet he does not undertake official studies).
I found that the writing style was much the same for all, yet that did not bother me. I have read other books where the different characters are created with very different voices yet I don't think this book suffers from the similarity in voice. The thoughts differ, even as they are expressed in similar sentence forms. There is enough detail that I felt I had entered each life and was there with that family member for that time.
It is a beautifully written book. One that I think should not be hurried. It is, as much as anything, a book about how to die, yet it is much more than that. It lingers, along with its lessons.
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/7424506
A story of a family. In it we meet, through their own words, John Wesley Northridge II,his son Paul, his daughter-in-law Naomi, Naomi's daughter Dalva, and Dalva's son Nelse. Other members of the family are mentioned by these five to fill out the family tree.
All of the entries are in the form of journals, journals that others know are being kept. The story begins with large entries by JW II, who is nearing death and writing about the past. We learn about his love of nature, his thoughts for his granddaughter Dalva and his son JW III. We learn that he has accumulated much in his life and is ready to leave it behind.
Interestingly, others in the family do not see JW II the same way he himself does. He is described as cold and demanding. Certainly there is some affection there but it is tempered.
Each of the entries brings us into the life of that person and his or her feelings for others and for nature. They all share, to different extents, a love of the outdoors and of birds in particular. Nelse even methodically makes notes of the birds he encounters on his wanderings, as if for a study (yet he does not undertake official studies).
I found that the writing style was much the same for all, yet that did not bother me. I have read other books where the different characters are created with very different voices yet I don't think this book suffers from the similarity in voice. The thoughts differ, even as they are expressed in similar sentence forms. There is enough detail that I felt I had entered each life and was there with that family member for that time.
It is a beautifully written book. One that I think should not be hurried. It is, as much as anything, a book about how to die, yet it is much more than that. It lingers, along with its lessons.
February 1, 2010
THE ROAD HOME by Jim Harrison is a beautiful, lyrical novel which explores the lives of five members of the Northridge family. It is written from multiple perspectives as they strive to understand their present and their past. Instead of making sweeping generalizations, I wanted to address a discussion question found in the back.
How is the portrait John Northridge II paints of himself in his "memoir" different from the picture we get through other characters?
The portrait John Northridge II paints is of a solitary, thoughtful man who struggles with being, or rather not being, an artist. His deepest and most profound relationships are with his dogs. This is often true of people who do not live in the sentimental world of the everyman. Animals are easier to love because they do not betray or disappoint. As a result, the relationships that humans form to animals are perfect and wholesome, unlike our relationships with other humans.
People pose difficulties because they have resentments, faults and agendas. No one loves unconditionally and when a person allows themselves to love and be loved by an animal, other human beings stop measuring up. John Northridge exposed these truths about himself in his memoir and allowed us a glimpse of who he is. The members of his family don't see this and view him as disturbed, detached, and unreachable. To them, he is those things without a doubt.
How is the portrait John Northridge II paints of himself in his "memoir" different from the picture we get through other characters?
The portrait John Northridge II paints is of a solitary, thoughtful man who struggles with being, or rather not being, an artist. His deepest and most profound relationships are with his dogs. This is often true of people who do not live in the sentimental world of the everyman. Animals are easier to love because they do not betray or disappoint. As a result, the relationships that humans form to animals are perfect and wholesome, unlike our relationships with other humans.
People pose difficulties because they have resentments, faults and agendas. No one loves unconditionally and when a person allows themselves to love and be loved by an animal, other human beings stop measuring up. John Northridge exposed these truths about himself in his memoir and allowed us a glimpse of who he is. The members of his family don't see this and view him as disturbed, detached, and unreachable. To them, he is those things without a doubt.
September 17, 2017
There is something about this writer that soothes and speaks to the soul. He breaks your heart but the familiarity of that heartbreak as part of the human experience comforts. The book made me cry, many times, sometimes strikingly and without warning and sometimes after building from a small ache to a great, searing grief. I didn't want to put it down. I wanted to soak it all in and I want to read it again if my heart will bear it. It made me remember my loved ones who are no longer with me. I still have so many questions, but with those questions come humility and awe in the face of nature and the beyond. It made me wonder what I might write in a memoir and how that could be different from the impressions that survive me. I was fascinated by the dimensions of the characters that continued to grow through the narratives of other family members even after their time had passed. There is the pain of loss balanced by human connections. Another reviewer mentioned feeling like every page brought a new sentence or idea that takes your breath away and I agree. Never have I dog-eared so many pages so that I could return to think. I am appreciative of the unassuming characters who speak to you only through the comfort and wisdom they provide to others. The gentle souls who help us make peace with things like death, abandonment and addiction and the reverberating horrors wreaked upon the land and her Native People. A beautiful, beautiful book.
January 2, 2015
This novel made me want to write more. Because Jim Harrison crafts excellent phrases and sentences. Because this novel achieved what only the novel can do--imagine the subjective consciousness of multiple people.
It is a series of introspections, generally journal entries, of four generations of a northern Nebraska family. It is a family deeply connected to their natural setting, so the novel is filled with beautiful descriptions of Nebraska in various seasons. They are also part-Native American and coping with the twentieth century world in which the old tribal ways have diminished.
This novel is more atmosphere than plot. It could be called graceful.
It is a series of introspections, generally journal entries, of four generations of a northern Nebraska family. It is a family deeply connected to their natural setting, so the novel is filled with beautiful descriptions of Nebraska in various seasons. They are also part-Native American and coping with the twentieth century world in which the old tribal ways have diminished.
This novel is more atmosphere than plot. It could be called graceful.
May 30, 2018
“It is easy to forget that in the main we die only seven times more slowly than our dogs.”
So bittersweet.
I held of on reading this for a long time because I didn't want it to sully my favorite Dalva. Turns out The Road Home is an exceptional companion novel to Dalva and I'm an idiot for not having read it sooner.
The dogs in this book are some of the best he's written about. The human characters perfectly flawed and real.
Harrison in fine form.
The ending had me wiping away tears.
So bittersweet.
I held of on reading this for a long time because I didn't want it to sully my favorite Dalva. Turns out The Road Home is an exceptional companion novel to Dalva and I'm an idiot for not having read it sooner.
The dogs in this book are some of the best he's written about. The human characters perfectly flawed and real.
Harrison in fine form.
The ending had me wiping away tears.
March 28, 2022
"The Road Home" by Jim Harrison is a sequel to his novel "Dalva," written about ten years previously. The truly American stories that are incorporated within these two books, make for an American epic through five generations. Sure to be one day looked upon as classics. Harrison, a prolific writer of fiction, poetry and essays, was lost to us a few years back, but his work should live on for decades to come if not longer.
March 21, 2018
I would love to personally thank Jim Harrison for writing this book. The characters will stay with me forever. What a beautiful soul he is!
July 22, 2018
Harrison's writing is a marvel of hidden complexity and carefully tuned voices. I read this book slowly because I didn't want it to end.
July 8, 2019
godamned amazing.
December 21, 2019
Hauntingly beautiful and expansive, interlocking family story. Set amidst the American plains.
October 25, 2023
It is a long book but worth reading to the very end. I am still thinking about the characters weeks after I finished reading it.
August 8, 2019
I bought this book several years ago, don't know what called to me to buy it but recently picked it up and could not put it down. The story is set in Grand Island/Omaha/Lincoln Nebraska, Duluth MN, Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and Tucson and the area south of Tucson in Arizona. We are very familiar with the UP of Michigan and of course, Duluth but only in the last few years have explored Tucson and Southern AZ and have made good friends in Grand Island NE.
The story covers 4 generations but just 5 members of the family, the last being Nelse who was given up at birth but in his early 30's & reconnects with his birth family. Each of the main 5 characters tells the family story through their viewpoint which of course includes different eras beginning in the early 1900's to mid 1980's. Nelse learns that he explored the same areas that his great-grandfather had, had the same spirit of wandering the and roughing it to feel as close to nature as he possibly could, and when he met his biological family, after many questions were answered, fit it comfortably.
The geographic areas were important to the story but so was the history of the time period of each generation plus the personalities of the main characters as well as the few secondary characters of the story.
The story covers 4 generations but just 5 members of the family, the last being Nelse who was given up at birth but in his early 30's & reconnects with his birth family. Each of the main 5 characters tells the family story through their viewpoint which of course includes different eras beginning in the early 1900's to mid 1980's. Nelse learns that he explored the same areas that his great-grandfather had, had the same spirit of wandering the and roughing it to feel as close to nature as he possibly could, and when he met his biological family, after many questions were answered, fit it comfortably.
The geographic areas were important to the story but so was the history of the time period of each generation plus the personalities of the main characters as well as the few secondary characters of the story.
September 19, 2025
3-1/2 stars
This was not my favorite Harrison. I wasn't sure of the value of the mentions of Loren Eiseley and Mari Sandoz ... I do own several books by each of them. Was it some kind of test? I didn't know "salpingoophorectomy" but it wasn't hard to decipher since I had had a "hysterosalpingogram" at the age of 25.
Nevertheless, it has its moments.
During war: "It seemed strange to hear no one curse God before they died. We are the eternal supplicants. It is a gift to have time to pray not to die."
"We certainly don't know how old we are unless we remind ourselves."
"I paused to damn the intensity of this kind of love that seemed to so deeply distort the rest of life, but then it was gone from my bones but not my memory. It was as inexplicable as much of the world and we could scarcely step off earth long enough for a clear view."
This was not my favorite Harrison. I wasn't sure of the value of the mentions of Loren Eiseley and Mari Sandoz ... I do own several books by each of them. Was it some kind of test? I didn't know "salpingoophorectomy" but it wasn't hard to decipher since I had had a "hysterosalpingogram" at the age of 25.
Nevertheless, it has its moments.
During war: "It seemed strange to hear no one curse God before they died. We are the eternal supplicants. It is a gift to have time to pray not to die."
"We certainly don't know how old we are unless we remind ourselves."
"I paused to damn the intensity of this kind of love that seemed to so deeply distort the rest of life, but then it was gone from my bones but not my memory. It was as inexplicable as much of the world and we could scarcely step off earth long enough for a clear view."
September 1, 2020
multigenerational tale of successful 20th century Nebraska family, with part Native heritage
slow paced, over multiple decades and characters - with adoption of 15 year old grand-daughter's infant son and his subsequent reintroduction as an adult central, but not dominating
many other themes touched on, living with wealth without succumbing to life ease, environmentalism, alcoholism, poverty and exclusion and historical exploitation of Native people
plenty of reference to casual sexual relationships - not that they are not deliberate or thoughtful - just easily taken on and easily dropped
great set of characters, beautiful landscapes and language
did not realise this was a sequel till late on, will read the 1st also I think
slow paced, over multiple decades and characters - with adoption of 15 year old grand-daughter's infant son and his subsequent reintroduction as an adult central, but not dominating
many other themes touched on, living with wealth without succumbing to life ease, environmentalism, alcoholism, poverty and exclusion and historical exploitation of Native people
plenty of reference to casual sexual relationships - not that they are not deliberate or thoughtful - just easily taken on and easily dropped
great set of characters, beautiful landscapes and language
did not realise this was a sequel till late on, will read the 1st also I think
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