Returning to Earth
Jim Harrison, 2007
Grove/Atlantic
280 pp.
ISBN-13: 780802143310
Summary
Hailed by the New York Times Book Review as "a master … who makes the ordinary extraordinary, the unnamable unforgettable," beloved author Jim Harrison returns with a masterpiece — a tender, profound, and magnificent novel about life, death, and finding redemption in unlikely places.
Slowly dying of Lou Gehrig's Disease, Donald, a middle-aged Chippewa-Finnish man, begins dictating family stories he has never shared with anyone, hoping to preserve history for his children. The dignity of Donald's death and his legacy encourages his loved ones to find a way to redeem — and let go of — the past, whether through his daughter's emersion in Chippewa religious ideas or his mourning wife's attempt to escape the malevolent influence of her own father.
A deeply moving book about origins and endings, and how to live with honor for the dead, Returning to Earth is one of the finest novels of Harrison's long, storied career, and will confirm his standing as one of the most important American writers now working. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth— December 11, 1937
• Where—Grayling, Michigan, USA
• Education—Michigan State University
• Awards—National Endowment for the Arts grant;
Guggenheim Fellowship
• Currently—lives in Michigan, New Mexico, Montana
Jim Harrison is an American author known for his poetry, fiction, essays, reviews, and writings about food. His work has appeared in Esquire, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, Outside, Playboy, Men's Journal, and the New York Times Magazine. He has published several collections of novellas, including Legends of the Fall (1979), which contained two that were eventually turned into films: Revenge (1990) and Legends of the Fall (1994).
He has written over twenty-five books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, including four volumes of novellas, The Beast God Forgot to Invent, Legends of the Fall, The Woman Lit by Fireflies, and Julip; seven other novels, The Road Home, Wolf, A Good Day to Die, Farmer, Warlock, Sundog, and Dalva; ten collections of poetry, including most recently Braided Creek, with Ted Kooser, and The Shape of the Journey: New and Collected Poems; and three works of nonfiction, Just Before Dark, The Raw and the Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand, and the memoir Off to the Side.
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 and Montana's mountains.
The winner of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Spirit of the West Award from the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association, he has had his work published in twenty-two languages. (Adapted from Wikipedia and the publisher.)
Book Reviews
As a rough rule, it seems that writers fall into two camps. There are those who delight in rousting the truth from its concealment amid pieties and convention. If they must strip-mine the world to expose its hypocrisy, they will do so, even if they leave a landscape barren of hope. Then there are those writers who prefer to remythologize life on earth, finding it rich with strange congruences and possibilities. Jim Harrison is a writer of the second type, and Returning to Earth is his extraordinary valediction to mourning. It sharpens one’s appetite for life even at its darkest.
Will Blythe - The New York Times
Dying at 45 of Lou Gehrig's disease, Donald, who is Chippewa-Finnish, dictates his family story to his wife, Cynthia, who records this headlong tale for their two grown children (and also interjects). Donald's half-Chippewa great-grandfather, Clarence, set out from Minnesota in 1871 at age 13 for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In Donald's compellingly digressive telling, Clarence worked the farms and mines of the northern Midwest, and arrived in the Marquette, Mich., area 35 years later. As Donald weaves the tale of his settled life of marriage and fatherhood with that of his restless ancestors, he reveals his deep connection to an earlier, wilder time and to a kind of people who are "gone forever." The next three parts of the novel, each narrated by a different member of Donald's family, relate the story of Donald's death and its effects. While his daughter, Clare, seeks solace in Donald's Anishnabeg religion, Cynthia and her brother, David, use Donald's death to come to terms with the legacy of their alcoholic father. The rambling narrative veers away from the epic sweep of Harrison's Legends of the Fall, and Donald's reticence about the role religion plays in his life dilutes its impact on the story. But Harrison's characters speak with a gripping frankness and intimacy about their own shortcomings, and delve into their grief with keen sympathy.
Publishers Weekly
Time, memory, and the land all play key roles in Harrison's remarkable new novel, set, like much of his work (e.g., True North), in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. At the center of the story is Donald, a middle-aged Chippewa-Finnish man dying of Lou Gehrig's disease. His dignity, presence, and approach to life, deeply influenced by Native American culture and spirituality, have had a powerful effect on his family, and the novel is largely concerned with his feelings about his impending demise and his family's reactions to it. Along with the example of his life, his legacy is a family history he dictates to his wife, Cynthia, during his last days in order to preserve what memories he can for those who remain, including children Clare and Herald. After his death, the family must come to terms with how he has affected their lives and find their own ways both to honor him and to let him go. A deeply felt meditation on life and death, nature and God, this is one of Harrison's finest works. Recommended for all public libraries. —Lawrence Rungren, Merrimack Valley Lib. Consortium, Andover, MA
Library Journal
Meditations on mortality and quasi-incestuous desire inform this thoughtful, occasionally rambling novel. Making his fictional return to Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Harrison (True North, 2004, etc.) tells the story of a death and its aftermath through four different narrators. The first is Donald, a man of mixed Chippewa-Finnish blood, who reflects on his life as he suffers through the final stages of Lou Gehrig's disease. He's a 45-year-old man of deep spirituality and profound dignity, and he's determined to assume control over his last days. The final section's narrator is Cynthia, Donald's wife, who is still trying to come to terms with his death five months later. He had enriched her life in ways that her wealthy family never could, and she had married him because he was so unlike her pedophile father. These sections are by far the novel's strongest, leaving the reader to wonder how and why Harrison chose the two narrators in the middle. One is K, a free spirit with a Mohawk haircut, who is the stepson of Cynthia's brother, David. K helps Donald through his last days, while sleeping with Donald's daughter, Clare, and lusting after her mother. Though the familial ties are too close for comfort, Cynthia occasionally feels twinges of desire for her daughter's cousin/lover as well. The weakest section of the novel is narrated by David, who hasn't been able to come to terms with unearned wealth as well as his sister has, and whose life balances good works with mental instability. It seems that their disgraced father has somehow influenced both David's character and his fate. As the last three narrators resume their lives after Donald's death, it appears to each of them that his spirit has not died with him and perhaps is now inhabiting a bear. Studying Chippewa spirituality, daughter Clare comes to believe this most strongly, which makes one wonder why she and perhaps her brother weren't narrators instead of K and David. Death remains a mystery, as Harrison explores the meaning it gives to life.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. As in his previous works of fiction, Jim Harrison chronicles life in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, a rugged landscape of thick forests filled with bear and deer. Begin your discussion of this novel by considering how this untamed backdrop affects and shapes his characters’ lives on both a physical and spiritual level. Consider the vast expanse of Lake Superior as well as the extreme climate of harsh winters and hot mosquito-filled summers–how might this influence people to be constantly at the mercy of nature?
2. K. describes Donald’s story as “what William Faulkner called ‘the raw meat on the floor’” (p. 98). What does he mean by this statement? What is it about Donald’s character and the way in which he lives that generates such respect and admiration among his family members? How far do you agree with the statement that “I never knew anyone who so thoroughly was what he was” (p. 162)? Would you describe anyone else’s story in the novel as “the raw meat on the floor?”
3. Donald’s attitude toward his death is stoic and without self-pity: “I think you’re better off understanding things like this than simply being pissed off” (p. 25). Talk about the importance of his religion in his ability to remain strong throughout his illness and the preparations for his suicide. Why is he so private about his religion? Trace the influences of his past on his personal brand of religion: take into accounts his months spent with Flower as a child, his Indian Chippewa heritage, his work ethic, and his reverence for nature.
4. What do we learn about Donald through his admission of his plan to murder a childhood enemy? Does your impression of him change? For the better or the worse?
5. Donald states “my own father’s solution for the hard knocks of life was to work too hard and that’s also been a downfall of my own” (p. 46). Identify and explain the ways in which work and the need to work appear in the novel: think about the contrast between Cynthia’s father and Donald’s father, about David’s teaching position in Mexico and what it means to him, as well as Cynthia’s decision to move away to find meaningful work. Find instances where mental well-being depends on physical exertion and, in contrast, where a lack of physical activity hinders intellectual thought.
6. As Donald recounts his family history to his wife, Cynthia, he seems to discover or rediscover a deep connection to his ancestors, especially with his great-grandfather, the first Clarence. How are the two of them alike? Consider Donald’s empathy for Clarence losing his beloved horse, Sally, stating that “I understand his feelings because I have lost my body” (p. 26). Even before the telling of these stories, what are some of the ways in which Donald has passed down his Indian heritage to his children?
7. In relating a moving story about a raven funeral, Donald muses about his own death (p. 71). How is his death similar to the raven’s passing? Discuss the author’s portrayal of Donald’s final moments, narrated by K. in one short paragraph in fairly clinical terms. Was the brevity of this description surprising to you or did it resonate with deeper, unspoken emotion? Did you want to see the family’s immediate reactions to the death or were you content to give them their privacy and imagine for yourself?
8. “We’ve been so inept and careless about death in America and have paid big for the consequences” (p. 226). What do you think this statement means and how far would you agree with it?
9. Death and attitudes toward it obviously play a central role in this novel. David states: “Death gives us a shove into a new sort of landscape” (p. 166) while Cynthia questions, “What’s an appropriate response to death?” (p. 228). Briefly consider the different characters’ responses to Donald’s death. Given what we know of their personalities does anyone’s reaction surprise you? Does anyone manage to act as Donald hoped? – “You can remember me but let me go?” (p. 228).
10. Why do you think Clare feels the need to immerse herself in Chippewa ideas on death after her father’s passing? Why is she drawn to Flower instead of her own mother? Is there a parallel between her feelings for Flower and those of her father’s feelings for Flower? How realistic do you find her responses?
11. Consider the ways in which Cynthia deals with Donald’s death. Why is she unable to help Clare? Discuss the parallels of learning to let go as a mother with letting someone go in death.
12. Donald’s death serves as a catalyst of sorts for David and gives him the strength to seek out Vera, the girl he loved twenty years earlier. Why do you think he is able to put the past behind him now?
13. Herald and Clare, Donald and Cynthia’s children, are strikingly dissimilar in character. Find instances of this dissimilarity and discuss how their character traits prepare them for handling their father’s illness and death. Do they step out of their expected roles at all? In many ways they mirror the difference that exists between Cynthia and her brother David, even K. and his sister, Rachel. What might these differences tell us about human nature?
14. David is a fascinating character, balancing his life between the wilds of his cabin and the remote poverty of Mexican villages. K. states, “David had spent his life nearly suffocated by ambiguities” (p. 137). How far would you agree with this statement? Central to his being is the need to make reparations for wrongs committed by his family over the last century. How do his survival kits for Mexican illegal immigrants fit into this picture? At one point he is advised to “cast your role as a screwdriver rather than a tank” (p. 187) in his humanitarian efforts. How far could this statement apply to his personal life too?
15. Fathers and father figures play an important role throughout the novel. Consider Cynthia’s attitude toward her father as a girl and its influence on her falling in love with Donald. Does her attitude toward her father and his monstrous act of raping Vera change over the course of the novel? What does she discover about his experience in the war, and does her knowledge bring any conclusions? What do we learn about David’s relationship with his father, and how has this affected his life? Who were father figures for Cynthia and her brother David? What about K? Talk about the four father figures in his life.
16. What are your impressions of the author’s portrayal of love in the novel? Consider the reasons for Donald and Cynthia’s deep and lasting love, which started in the most unlikely of circumstances. K. reflects with anger on “the randomness of love” (p. 105), which makes him love Cynthia more than Clare. Discuss the different relationships presented in the novel and consider the role played by “randomness.”
17. Discuss how the novel explores the idea of history, especially through the characters of David and Donald. David compares the destructive nature of Donald’s disease to his own “dithering obsession with the destructiveness of history” (p. 149). What do you think he means by this and is it a fair analogy to make? How does his preoccupation with history impact his life? Consider both the positive and negative ways. Talk about Donald’s attitude toward history. Why do you think he states “I like the stories with people myself” (p. 6)?
18. We learn, quite surprisingly, that Donald was jealous of David’s vivid animal-filled dreams (p. 119) but Donald seems to have had many striking dreams himself. Identify examples of dream images that have special importance in the novel. Consider the dream of the first Clarence that led him to a horse farm. How does Cynthia follow in his footsteps at the end of the novel? Given that dreaming occurs when the mind is in a state of subconsciousness, could Donald’s three days on the mountain fit into the dream category? What are some of the visions he experienced during his fast and how are they relevant to the rest of the novel?
19. As you will have noted, bears appear in dreams throughout the novel, and from Donald’s first mention of bad dreams about flying bears as a child, it is evident that bears will play a major role in the book. Consider the implications of the statement that “a bear is just a bear” in terms of understanding Donald’s religion. Find instances of the prevalence of bears in daily life in the Upper Peninsula. and discuss the spiritual importance of bears in Chippewa lore. How do different family members react to the possibility of Donald’s soul migrating into a bear’s body? What realization occurs at the very end of the novel when Cynthia and Clare sight a bear together? Has Cynthia changed since Donald’s death? What might this mean for her relationship with her daughter?
20. Discuss how the novel portrays man’s symbiotic relationship with nature. Consider the ways in which Donald and his family bring nature into their lives, indeed need nature in order to live life fully, and find instances where people show a lack of reverence toward nature and animals. When Donald spends his three days in the wilderness he finds his place in the world and recounts “I was able to see how creatures including insects looked at me rather than just how I saw them” (p. 70). Given what we know about the importance of nature in the characters’ lives, what might K.’s sister, Rachel, represent in the novel?
21. At the end of the novel Cynthia discovers what Camus refers to as “terrible freedom” (p. 274). What is this, and why does it fill Cynthia with “vertigo”? Do you think she will survive in Montana?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
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