SOURCE: "Three Novellas: Violent Means," in The New York Times Book Review, June 17, 1979, pp. 14, 27.

Bourjaily is an American novelist and critic. In the following review of Legends of the Fall, he notes the effective manner in which Harrison establishes "credibility" in creating a sense of epic legend within the short story format.

Writing novellas presents a problem easier to describe than to solve. What is needed is the intensity, steady focus and single mood of a short story, along with the full statement made in a novel, where the reader should sense that everything that matters has been said.

In "Legends of the Fall," the title piece and best of Jim Harrison's collection of three novellas—and it seems fair to rank them good, better and best—the usual way of combining intensity and breadth is discarded with engaging recklessness. In place of a single point of view...