A river runs through it
by Norman Maclean · first published 1976
24% recommend71% neutral6% critical
Collection of three Western stories, featuring the title piece about the relationship between a father and his two sons, bound together by love and fly fishing.
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"Breaking Clean" by Judy Blunt. Resonates with my Mother's life experience. "A River Runs Through it" by Norman Maclean. A best seller that got there by word of mouth, and was within an inch of a Pulitzer.
on “Ask HN: What's your favorite novel? Why?” ↗…As for the more recent merchant marine, Christopher Buckley's Steaming to Bamboola is very funny, and I suppose fairly accurate. For forest rangers, Norman Maclean's novella "USFS 1919", collected in A River Runs Through It, gives a picture of how it was then. August Fruge, longtime director of the University of California Press, wrote an excellent memoir, A Skeptic Among Scholars. There are many academic novels and memoirs,…
on “Ask HN: Recommend books that give you insight into other professions” ↗Breaking Clean Judy Blunt A River Runs Through It Norman Maclean
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite non-technical books?” ↗The book "A River Runs Through It", which is three short stories, one of which is also called "A River Runs Through It" is very good too. I read it once over 10 years ago and I still think about it from time to time.
on “Larry McMurtry has died” ↗The Fog of War. It caused me to see geopolitics from both a simpler and more constantly ambiguous perspective. A River Runs through It. Even more so the book, but the movie gets the job done: the meanings of our experiences only make sense once their dust has settled. The Leftovers. I'm going to cheat a little and say a TV show here.…
on “Ask HN: What movies changed your perception of reality or life?” ↗The mention of a river reminds of me of those ol' words by Norman Maclean [1]: "Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.…
on “How to Grow Old (1951)” ↗…Kingsolver, Barbara: The Poisonwood Bible - Krakauer, Jon: Into Thin Air - Lee, Harper: To Kill a Mockingbird - Lefkowitz, Bernard: Our Guys - Little, Bentley: The Ignored - Maclean, Norman: A River Runs Through It and Other Stories - Maugham, W. Somerset: The Moon and Sixpence - McCarthy, Cormac: Cities of the Plain - McCarthy, Cormac: The Crossing - McCourt, Frank: Angela’s Ashes - McDermott, Alice:…
on “Stephen King: Can a Novelist Be Too Productive? (2015)” ↗The two books I have active right now: From Falling Bodies to Radio Waves, Emilio Segre A River Runs Through It, Norman Maclean
on “Ask HN: What literature do you read?” ↗The last paragraph reminded me of the end of "A River Runs Through It" by Norman Maclean.
on “Death by Fire” ↗"In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing" A River Runs Through It Norman Maclean
on “Show HN: Opening lines of famous literary works” ↗They should have some rivers in Montana -- probably most people's primary association of fly fishing is with Norman Maclean's autobiographical novella "A River Runs Through It" and Robert Redford's 1992 film of it.
on “Show HN: A free mini game that makes you a smarter fly fisherperson” ↗The author is Norman Maclean, who wrote _A River Runs Through It_.
on “Billiards Is a Good Game (1975)” ↗I doubt hauntings are distributed uniformly or that their manifestations are identical, which for me recalls the quote from A River Runs Through It: "They were Methodists, a denomination my father referred to as Baptists who could read." And of course I have been in many Baptist churches that avow from their pulpits that Catholics are cultists and…
on “Comic Books and Juvenile Delinquency (1955)” ↗…often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding --- A River Runs Through It Even though you can't expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make that attempt. That's morality, that's religion. That's art. That's life --- (read somewhere) On education --- "And this…
on “Ask HN: What is/are your favorite quote(s)?” ↗Wonderful pictures. Lora Webb Nichols was a gifted photographer. They feel like the real illustrations for stories like "A River Runs through It." [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_River_Runs_Through_It_(novel... Edit: typo
on “A Woman’s Intimate Record of Wyoming in the Early Twentieth Century” ↗