[Critique] “Only the earth is eternal”, François Busnel

To follow up on the documentary of the same name that he dedicated (with Adrien Soland) this year to the American writer Jim Harrison (1937-2016), François Busnel gives us this beautiful book that pays homage to him. Screenwriter, food and literary critic, sports and automobile journalist, poet, Jim Harrison no longer needs an introduction. Only the earth is eternal is the sum of several years of friendship – and drinking – with “Big Jim”, of passionate readings and meetings filmed a few months before his death on the lands of the author of Dalva and of Fall Legends. In addition to a long unpublished text by Busnel, there is an anthology of well-chosen extracts, a kind of profession of faith on the novel, the road, wine, nature or the “Indians”. “They made me a friendly grizzly, while I am a vulnerable, fragile and terrified being,” admits the ogre from Montana. As a bonus, you’ll find the recipe for Mexican-style pork shoulder prepared by Peter Lewis in the film.

Jim Harrison

★★★★

François Busnel, Gallimard, Paris, 2022, 258 pages

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