Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters.
– Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It
This is one of my favorite films. We are all haunted by waters, by memories. Just as the river, the memories run deep. And we see ourselves in the water’s reflection – our faces – they change, they get old – but the memories are always new….
I can’t help but have my eyes well up each time I reach this passage, and I read it often. The power from Maclean’s simple words continues to amaze me.
Maclean wove many themes of three into this story. His brother Paul’s brilliance balanced by
his dark side along with their day-to-day reality together is one triplet. Another is treatment of the art of fly fishing, starting early in the story with the basic four count rythym, later expanded to flies and casting styles, and finally at the end with Paul’s giant fish. Also, his life (particularly as it relates to Paul) starting as childhood stalwart best friends, separating later by college and marriage, rejoining at the end together with their father on their final day of fishing together.
It is the eventual melding of all these layers of three-sided elements that framed his life that I believe Norman Maclean was thinking of when he said “all things merge into one and a river runs through it”. The Big Blackfoot formed the canvas on which that life took place.
This is truly one of America’s great classics.
I’m not sure if you know this, but I have always liked a river runs through it. it was one of the few books i brought with me from home (I know, shameful compared to you).