True North Book Reviews

True North by Jim Harrison Book Summary

One of American literature’s most significant authors delivers “a coming-of-age story, a familial saga of estrangement . . . A slow-burning revenge tragedy” (The New York Times Book Review).
 
An epic tale that pits a son against the legacy of his family’s desecration of the earth, and his own father’s more personal violations, Jim Harrison’s True North is a beautiful and moving novel that speaks to the territory in our hearts that calls us back to our roots.
 
The scion of a family of wealthy timber barons, David Burkett has grown up with a father who is a malevolent force and a mother made vague and numb by alcohol and pills. He and his sister Cynthia, a firecracker who scandalizes the family at fourteen by taking up with the son of their Finnish-Native American gardener, are mostly left to make their own way. As David comes to adulthood—often guided and enlightened by the unforgettable, intractable, courageous women he loves—he realizes he must come to terms with his forefathers’ rapacious destruction of the woods of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, as well as the working people who made their wealth possible.
 
Jim Harrison has given us a family tragedy of betrayal, amends, and justice for the worst sins. True North is a bravura performance from one of our finest writers, accomplished with deep humanity, humor, and redemptive soul.
 
“A provocative tale that explores the roots of wealth and privilege in America . . . Harrison’s writing is superb, as always, rippling with thematic leaps and poetic insights.” —The Oregonian

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True North (Jim Harrison) Book Reviews 2024

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