The New York Times tells us that A River Runs Through It is 50 years old. The Times points out that the percentage of American males that read fiction is declining. Norman Maclean’s novella was barely published 50 years ago. Could it be published today?
The book, as opposed to the novella, is A River Runs Through It and Other Stories. One of those stories, “Logging and Pimping and ‘Your Pal, Jim,’” is about a lumberjack that the narrator hated. The narrator sounds like Maclean.
Jim was the best sawyer in the crew. The narrator worked as his partner, needing the money for graduate school. Jim was bigger and stronger. Manning a crosscut saw with him was an ordeal.
The story includes long passages on the importance of good boots and on the psychological games men play when they have to work with someone they hate. It also includes this:
It was getting hot and I was half-sick when I came back to camp at the end of the day. I would dig into my duffel back and get clean underwear and clean white socks and a bar of soap and go to the creek. Afterwards, I would sit on the bank until I was dry. Then I would feel better. It was a rule I had learned my first year working in the Forest Service — when exhausted and feeling sorry for yourself, at least change socks.
I’m one of those American males who read fewer works of fiction than I used to. The newer books that I tried and gave up on had conflicts that didn’t hold my attention.
I read Maclean’s story with wonder. If he were alive and writing today, I’d read more fiction.
• Sources: Monte Burke, “Could ‘A River Runs Through It’ Have Been a Hit Today?” The New York Times, April 20, 2026. It’s here:
Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories; New York: Pocket Books, 1992, p. 122.
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