Dalva (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Jim Harrison
- First Published: 1988
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: 1986, with flashbacks
- Setting: Nebraska, other parts of the Midwest, and California
- Principal Characters: Dalva, Michael, Duane Stone Horse, Ruth, Naomi, Paul, J. W. Northridge
- Genres: Long fiction, Family literature
- Subjects: Family or family life, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Twentieth century, Midwest, 1980’s, Native Americans or American Indians, Pain, Farms, farmers, or farming, Bereavement or grief, Agriculture, Colleges or universities, Life and death, Research
- Locales: California, Midwest (U.S.), Nebraska
Many of the elements which have established Jim Harrison's reputation as a poet and novelist are present in Dalva These include an outdoor, Midwest setting marked by an appreciation of the natural world possessed only by those who have been reared close to it (Harrison is from rural northern Michigan) and an earthy, unsentimental approach to his story and his characters. Yet Dalva does not have the same degree of violence, cruelty, and nihilistic despair that characterize the work for which Harrison is best known: the three novellas in Legends of the Fall (1979)....
[The entire page is 2124 words long]
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