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epiace's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
jellyneckz's review against another edition
2.0
I was hoping for more road trip storyline after just having made a cross-country trip myself. I was disappointed that there was less about the places themselves and more reminiscing on Cliff's past and his relationships.
janie's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
jemmacooper's review
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
annie8me's review against another edition
2.0
While there were many interesting and laugh out loud moments to the this autobiographical styled novel, it was a bit more vulgar than I expected. Not at all something you would want to be listening to on a road trip or 5 minute drive to the store with kids in the car. I kept thinking of that scene in Under The Tuscan Sun where Frances is telling an author she couldn't get into a book about a middle aged man reliving all his horny teenage fantasies. It was narrated by an older gentleman who seemed tired and uninterested in the story but it came to fit the story perfectly as it was a narration of the life, divorce and subsequent road trip of discovery of a 60 year old man. Plenty of alcohol, sex, foul language, talking about wanting sex and constant descriptions of women and what he'd like to do with them.
lisadee's review
4.0
Cliff is 60, and after 38 years of marriage he is divorced, lost his farm which is his livlihood, and identitiy since leaving the teaching profession. Oh, and to add insult his dog has died. Well, from such dire straits there must be only one way to go from there...up. Cliff sets out on a journey both literally and figuratively using a puzzle of the United States to guide him. The story follows him as he rambles along with his thoughts being as random and far reaching as his path.
It's almost as if it is a coming of age novel, but the age is 60 and the events of a lifetime have happened already, and the challenge at this point is to come to grips with how life has turned out.
The best things about the book are 1) the bookish memories of Cliff's life spent appreciating literature,the literary figures he read and taught as a English/history teacher. 2)It is readable and relatable for a wide reading audience. Quotes used in the book such as "Never lose your place in the world" could be taken as sound advice no matter your age.
Without giving anything away; I came away from the book feeling good about the reading it having watched Cliff deal with his life.
It's almost as if it is a coming of age novel, but the age is 60 and the events of a lifetime have happened already, and the challenge at this point is to come to grips with how life has turned out.
The best things about the book are 1) the bookish memories of Cliff's life spent appreciating literature,the literary figures he read and taught as a English/history teacher. 2)It is readable and relatable for a wide reading audience. Quotes used in the book such as "Never lose your place in the world" could be taken as sound advice no matter your age.
Without giving anything away; I came away from the book feeling good about the reading it having watched Cliff deal with his life.
geohiker's review against another edition
3.0
I really don't understand the attraction to books about completely oblivious men. "Total lack of understanding" about everything around you is not really interesting. (And maybe being half as interested in your wife as you were in your dog would have been helpful.) The travel parts were good.
imperfectcj's review
3.0
You know? I enjoyed this book. Like There but for the by Ali Smith, this book was about the past and the present, but this one was more about what to do when the past is pulled out from underneath you. Cliff is trying to redefine or perhaps rediscover his foundation when, after 25 years of farming and nearly 40 years of marriage, he finds himself without both his farm and his wife. Cliff clings to his prior identity as an English Major and spends a lot of time reminiscing about the days before his marriage, alternately glorifying those days and poking fun at himself and at English Majors and academic types in general. He claims to hate farming and to have made a naive decision giving up his teaching career to farm full-time in his 30's, but he feels a strong draw back to the land. I suppose in the end what he finds is not so much a radical change, but a sense of balance.
It was interesting to me that I persisted in thinking that Cliff was an "old guy," when in reality, he's almost two years younger than my dad (and I don't think of my dad as an "old guy"). In a lot of ways he's like my dad. Which made the frequent (very frequent) references to sex all the more weird for me.
As a side note, why is it that there seem to be a number of older male writers who write a lot about sex? I'm thinking of Norman Mailer's Ancient Evenings (which I could not stand) and John Updike's Toward the End of Time (which I could stand, and which I read through, but which I didn't really like except in the way that it showed a person very much consumed with his own life and in his own mind and body even through major global turmoil).
At any rate, even though the mentions of sex were rather excessive, I liked The English Major more than either of these other two books.
I wish Harrison had given more detail about the landscape as Cliff took his road trip. He drove all the way across Nebraska and noted none of the rather dramatic changes from the eastern half of the state to the western half, but he did note the weird way that distances become deceptive in Wyoming. And I loved the description of Cliff's walk through San Francisco and his experience of the Pacific Ocean and the redwoods in northern California. It made me nostalgic for the geography of the West Coast (but not for million-dollar condos). I was a little disappointed that Cliff reduced Utah to mentions of polygamous groups and a complaint about the traffic around Salt Lake City, but what are you going to do? He made up for it with his description of Montana. I finished the book with a desire to learn fly fishing.
I like a good road trip book (I like road trips), and Cliff's plan to work his way through the USA puzzle really appeals to my sense of order. Cliff attributes his sense of order to his English Major and his years of farming, with his 50 acre of cherry trees planted in neat rows. Perhaps this means I would do well as a farmer.
To summarize, this book made me feel icky with its frequent sexual references, but it also left me wanting to visit California, become a farmer, take a road trip, defend Utah, and go fly fishing. And maybe to send a copy of the book to my dad.
It was interesting to me that I persisted in thinking that Cliff was an "old guy," when in reality, he's almost two years younger than my dad (and I don't think of my dad as an "old guy"). In a lot of ways he's like my dad. Which made the frequent (very frequent) references to sex all the more weird for me.
As a side note, why is it that there seem to be a number of older male writers who write a lot about sex? I'm thinking of Norman Mailer's Ancient Evenings (which I could not stand) and John Updike's Toward the End of Time (which I could stand, and which I read through, but which I didn't really like except in the way that it showed a person very much consumed with his own life and in his own mind and body even through major global turmoil).
At any rate, even though the mentions of sex were rather excessive, I liked The English Major more than either of these other two books.
I wish Harrison had given more detail about the landscape as Cliff took his road trip. He drove all the way across Nebraska and noted none of the rather dramatic changes from the eastern half of the state to the western half, but he did note the weird way that distances become deceptive in Wyoming. And I loved the description of Cliff's walk through San Francisco and his experience of the Pacific Ocean and the redwoods in northern California. It made me nostalgic for the geography of the West Coast (but not for million-dollar condos). I was a little disappointed that Cliff reduced Utah to mentions of polygamous groups and a complaint about the traffic around Salt Lake City, but what are you going to do? He made up for it with his description of Montana. I finished the book with a desire to learn fly fishing.
I like a good road trip book (I like road trips), and Cliff's plan to work his way through the USA puzzle really appeals to my sense of order. Cliff attributes his sense of order to his English Major and his years of farming, with his 50 acre of cherry trees planted in neat rows. Perhaps this means I would do well as a farmer.
To summarize, this book made me feel icky with its frequent sexual references, but it also left me wanting to visit California, become a farmer, take a road trip, defend Utah, and go fly fishing. And maybe to send a copy of the book to my dad.
susanhert's review
1.0
I wasn't expecting great things from this book I picked up from the stacks at the library, so I can't say I was disappointed by the book. It's rather bland and I didn't much care for the main character. I made it through only a handful of states before I realized that there was no way I was going to make it through the entire country with this guy. And why "The English Major"? This seems an inappropriate title, but I guess I shall never really know. I'm OK with that.