The novel, A River Runs Through It,
is set in Montana, and is semi-autobiographical. It is about Norman Maclean—the author.
It is his attempt to study the tragic death of his brother Paul—to better understand
it—to honor his brother's memory, and to delve into his father's place (a Presbyterian
minister) in their lives. The title, A River Runs Through It,
refers to the common bond the Maclean men shared through fly-fishing
and how it connects the memories the author has of the past. Through his
study of the people and events of his life—in particular, the summer when they fished in
1937, when Norman and Paul were in their thirties—Maclean tries to come to terms later
in life with what happened so many years before.
A theme
running through the story deals with "spiritualism." Maclean's father provides the
spiritual training the sons receive while fishing and interacting with nature—learning
that God could be found in both. The brothers are very different: Paul is something of a
free spirit, enjoying life in ways that conflict with his family's preferences: he
gambles and drinks and does not want to settle down. He is gifted at fishing, and
handsome. On the other hand, the author struggles to find a balance in
his world between fishing and life, in particular, with his family.
He worries about Paul.
There are two women in the story,
Maclean's mother and his sister-in-law, Jessie, they have nothing to do with
fly-fishing; as fishing is such a central part of the story, the women take on a
secondary importance in the novel, but not with Maclean—he loves them, these
"caregivers" and "peacemakers."
The fishing trip, the last
all three would make together, is almost a religious moment for the men as they watch
Paul work his magic with the last fish they will ever see him catch. Nature provides a
spirituality—that which is present for the men when they go fishing; it draws them
together one more time.
The novel was nominated for the
Pulitzer Prize. Maclean's book is considered one of the most outstanding in the
Twentieth Century, especially of Western American
literature.
In
a review for the Chicago Tribune, critic Alfred Kazin stated:
'There are passages here of physical rapture in the presence of unsullied primitive
America that are as beautiful as anything in Thoreau
and Hemingway'.
At the end of
the novel, Paul and Maclean's father are dead, but he still fishes
in the Big Blackfoot River. It is there, Maclean writes
that...
“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river
runs through it.”
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