“and other stories”

I got a copy of Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It and other stories” from my wife for my birthday a few weeks ago. The movie was on cable and I’ve always enjoyed the the poetic way that the story was told, so I asked and I received.

Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

What I didn’t realize was that when the book was published it also contained “and other stories“. I’ve always enjoyed the works of Jack London and Robert Service. I think it is the authentic style of writing and obviously the subject matter that attracts me to these writers. As I read the short story USFS 1919: The Ranger, the Cook and a Hole in the Sky I was inspired to mark the following passage on page 144 (I have a tendency to write a lot in my books):

About the same time, I began to have another feeling, although one related to the feeling that I wasn’t going to let Bill punish me by making me watch mountains. Somewhere along here I first became conscious of the feeling I talked about earlier – the feeling that comes when you first notice your life turning into a story. I began to sense the difference between what I would feel if I were just nearing the end of a summer’s work or were just beginning a story……

Stories. One of my most favorite words. Yes our lives are stories, but we often don’t realize it. I think that is because we often don’t pay attention. Am I just ending a job, or am I beginning a story? More importantly, what is your story? Take some quiet time today and reflect on your story. Is it beginning? Is it changing? Is it exciting or boring? And by who’s definition is it any of these things? I love stories, telling them, hearing them and sharing them.

Again, take some time today and listen to your own story……..

3 Comments

  1. Chris said:

    You might also enjoy “Young Men and Fire”, also by Norman Maclean. I died before he finished writing it, but it was published anyway. It’s worth reading.

    February 23, 2007
  2. Chris said:

    … I mean… HE died before he finished writing it…

    February 23, 2007
  3. Dan Carlson said:

    I bought and read (I clarify that because I don’t always get around to reading what I buy) “Young Men and Fire” several years ago when it was first published. I was so intigued by the story that I took a day and went down to the U of M and located a copy of the Life magazine that did a story on the fire when it happened.

    February 25, 2007

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