Off to the Side: A Memoir (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780802140302)

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.

Author: Jim Harrison
ISBN-10: 0802140300
ISBN-13: 9780802140302
Publisher: Grove Press
Language: English
Published: 08/08/2003
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.81lbs
Size: 8.26h x 5.58w x 0.82d

Review Citation(s):
Booksense '76 Sep/Oct 2003 09/01/2003 pg. 1
New York Times 10/05/2003 pg. 28
People Weekly 05/17/2010 pg. 65