SOURCE: "Jim Harrison's Misfits: A Fatherless Woman, an Upper Peninsula Rogue and a Victimized Academic," in Chicago Tribune, May 8, 1994, p. 5.

In the following mixed review of the three novellas comprising Julip, Cheuse praises the engaging qualities of "Julip" and "The Seven-Ounce Man" but deems "The Beige Dolorosa" disappointing.

It's a rare thing when it works, but Jim Harrison wants to have it both ways—to write successfully as a novelist and a poet—and he does. Six novels and three collections of novellas, counting this new book, eight volumes of poetry and a collection of nonfiction in the last few decades add up to one of the most interesting and entertaining bodies of work by any writer of his generation.

Looking back at Harrison's fiction, one sees some books still burning brightly while others have sputtered out. Along with the novels Sundog and Dalva, the novellas in Legends...