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Warlock
John Lundgren, a.k.a. Warlock, is an unemployment foundation executive whose life is about to become unhinged. After surviving a midlife crisis, Warlock finally decides to get a job. He soon discovers, however, that his new boss, Dr. Rabun, is no less evil to Professor Moriarty. Hired to troubleshoot for the doctor, Warlock himself battling poachers in the haunted wilderness of northern Michigan while also spying on his employer's wife and son in the seamy underside of Key West. A comedy with one foot in the abyss, Warlock is the singular literary entertainment from an American master.
272 pages, Paperback
First published June 15, 1981
85 people are currently reading
376 people want to read
About the author
Jim Harrison
184 books1,493 followersJim Harrison was born in Grayling, Michigan, to Winfield Sprague Harrison, a county agricultural agent, and Norma Olivia (Wahlgren) Harrison, both avid readers. He married Linda King in 1959 with whom he has two daughters.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
His awards include National Academy of Arts grants (1967, 68, 69), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1969-70), the Spirit of the West Award from the Mountain & Plains Booksellers Association, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007).
Much of Harrison's writing depicts sparsely populated regions of North America with many stories set in places such as Nebraska's Sand Hills, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Montana's mountains, and along the Arizona-Mexico border.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
His awards include National Academy of Arts grants (1967, 68, 69), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1969-70), the Spirit of the West Award from the Mountain & Plains Booksellers Association, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007).
Much of Harrison's writing depicts sparsely populated regions of North America with many stories set in places such as Nebraska's Sand Hills, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Montana's mountains, and along the Arizona-Mexico border.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
October 24, 2021
“The real trouble with walking a long ways is that you usually have to walk back.”
WARLOCK has been my introduction to the work of Jim Harrison, who everyone seemed to love. I wish it had not been my first read of his.
The plot-Johnny Lundgren is an unemployed executive in Michigan in 1980. Eventually he is employed by a doctor his wife (a surgical nurse) works with to do odds and ends “investigations” of sorts. Oh, and Johnny is obsessed with sex, thinks about sex, seems to have no life outside of thinking about and pursuing it.
The book is divided into 3 parts. Part one…ugh. Navel gazing of the worst sort. Parts Two and Three…well at least something happens (thus the two stars) and they move quickly.
The text has a dry, drool noir feel to it. And it is vulgar, ridiculously so since I could not really find a point to it. If Harrison had cut out sexual references the book would have been 100 pages shorter. That’s a lot of sex in a 279 page book, and not a lot of story. As my friend Kim said of this book, “I found it artificially crude.” That is it in a nutshell.
I read WARLOCK quickly, and for a book that is a bit all over the place the last paragraph was good. It was a nice way to end this text. Mr. Harrison was obviously a talented man, and I will read him again, but this one is a miss.
I end with some quotes/moments in the text that stuck with me:
• “He loved to invent statistics, his favorite being that every year in the United States more people die of bad mayonnaise than rattlesnake bite.”
• “Then life changed with as little reason as it had previously refused to change.”
• “But then jealousy, after self-pity, is the most destructive human emotion.”
• “Rare, indeed, is a woman or man so sullied that they can’t be rebaptized with a few drinks, a pizza, and a shower.”
WARLOCK has been my introduction to the work of Jim Harrison, who everyone seemed to love. I wish it had not been my first read of his.
The plot-Johnny Lundgren is an unemployed executive in Michigan in 1980. Eventually he is employed by a doctor his wife (a surgical nurse) works with to do odds and ends “investigations” of sorts. Oh, and Johnny is obsessed with sex, thinks about sex, seems to have no life outside of thinking about and pursuing it.
The book is divided into 3 parts. Part one…ugh. Navel gazing of the worst sort. Parts Two and Three…well at least something happens (thus the two stars) and they move quickly.
The text has a dry, drool noir feel to it. And it is vulgar, ridiculously so since I could not really find a point to it. If Harrison had cut out sexual references the book would have been 100 pages shorter. That’s a lot of sex in a 279 page book, and not a lot of story. As my friend Kim said of this book, “I found it artificially crude.” That is it in a nutshell.
I read WARLOCK quickly, and for a book that is a bit all over the place the last paragraph was good. It was a nice way to end this text. Mr. Harrison was obviously a talented man, and I will read him again, but this one is a miss.
I end with some quotes/moments in the text that stuck with me:
• “He loved to invent statistics, his favorite being that every year in the United States more people die of bad mayonnaise than rattlesnake bite.”
• “Then life changed with as little reason as it had previously refused to change.”
• “But then jealousy, after self-pity, is the most destructive human emotion.”
• “Rare, indeed, is a woman or man so sullied that they can’t be rebaptized with a few drinks, a pizza, and a shower.”
August 24, 2019
If there is any sort of story, it happens in the last 2/3 of the book. The first third is all about Warlock, what he thinks, & his life to date. He's not that interesting or likable. I can't take any more. It's well narrated, so that wasn't dragging it down. There just isn't any real story.
November 21, 2025
Jim Harrison was one of the true American Originals and is perhaps the single finest example of the "For You" or "Not For You" author. If you like him, his books are "for you" and if you don't like him, his books simply are "not for you" and that's that. Any discussion | analysis | reviews that seek to discredit his writing would fall apart as they were being written. His characters are rumpled, disgusting, lascivious, and flawed - yes. But they are also brave, noble, compassionate, and hilarious while being wholly distinct in literature. His plots are airtight in their open-ended meandering shagginess. And his writing is Twain crossed with Faulkner
My knowledge and fear that someday I will and must die is matched only by my knowledge that someday I will and must run out of Harrison's writing
My knowledge and fear that someday I will and must die is matched only by my knowledge that someday I will and must run out of Harrison's writing
January 10, 2013
Well, probably or definitely not my favorite of Harrison's books, I'll let you be the judge of which. It's fun, but sort of like seeing your favorite band on a bad night. Not a bad time, but sort of meh. I didn't really buy (or even know/understand) how good a cook Warlock was, and his "descent" seemed downplayed to the point of it was just natural/boring/inevitable. The band thing describes it, though.
September 15, 2020
https://rogueliterarysociety.com/f/wa...
I am at a loss to explain why for the first time after reading this, and now re-reading several of Jim Harrison’s books, I have yet to highlight a sentence or phrase, and I am already at least twelve percent into it. My guess is that the sex-obsessed character of Johnny Lundgren, who goes by the name of Warlock, is being developed in such a way as to leave little doubt that no matter where this story might lead that sordid sexual proclivities will follow. That much is clear. Even his beloved second wife Diana has a tendency to stray once in a while herself. Sex, and desire for sex, is always present in a Jim Harrison composition, but Warlock seems to carry this theme to a degree heretofore unseen.
...Warlock’s father had told him that Japs could hide in these trees because their heads looked like coconuts. Any fool knew that…
In developing this main character, Harrison utilizes everything unseemly in an unevolved man. Sexism, along with bigoted and racist attitudes for Japanese and African Americans, are just a few of the environmental and cultural bents preparing us for what can only be a redemption of sorts as the novel progresses. This is possibly a reader’s test as well in seeing just how complicit his reader might become with this, so far, unsavory main character.
...Warlock in his whiskey haze noted that he could see no panty line under Diana’s dress. He felt terribly sexy suddenly, and pondered the chances of slipping her off into the shrubbery for a quicky...Despite his preoccupation with the Rabun business, his wiener began to swirl in his trousers at the sight of her underthighs and discrete thatch, nestled there like a thrush, nest and all…
Thirty percent into the book and Warlock is still chasing any orifice he might find willing to receive his overeager appendages of both tongue and penis. Meanwhile his nurse-wife is feeding her same lustful nature with methods that satisfy her sexual needs as well. And Diana is not always engaging in sex exclusively with her husband Warlock. Generally, by this stage in his books, and in addition to the sex, Harrison has us into some sort of a sophisticated plot. Instead, and perhaps for some higher purpose, he is belaboring wanton sexualty and apeman tendencies. It seems both Warlock and Diana know who they are married to and accept their adulterous behavior because neither can exist in any other way. Warlock is obviously an extreme version of his immensely popular and fictional Brown Dog character whom Harrison claimed was his alter ego.
...He liked older women for the simple reason that they were less likely to be dumb…
And so on he goes. Unemployed male chauvinist Warlock with too much time on his hands and no hobby or purpose in which to take his mind off female anatomy and what he might do with it given the slightest hint of an opening. Harrison, at the thirty percent mark, has already accomplished a low level supersaturation unexampled in my prior readings of his work. Experienced fans of Jim Harrison know that Warlock must eventually have something redeemable to yet absolve him of his simplemindedness. Or perhaps it is a question for ourselves to answer? Many of the thoughts and actions of Warlock can be wagered with favorable odds that no small number of us have said or done the same at one time or another. That is most likely what is so uncomfortable for me early on in the novel. Perhaps once we all come to grips with our own failings as human beings we can get on to where the book is taking us. It isn’t easy suffering through the rawness of this unleashed beast awash on the page. Interesting that Diana in many respects is his equal.
...I sort of thought you’d make yourself up like a Negro. I was all ready for you to be a Negro…
Warlock would dress up in a tuxedo and black face as the couple would role play in their sexual adventures. Diana wanted to be fucked by a black man and her husband obviously wanted her to be obliged. Not exactly politically correct these days, but certainly an honest portrayal of some people back then, and considering our United States of America elected Donald Trump into the highest office of the land, perhaps a bigoted and racist behavior thriving even still today. But the fantasy of having sex with a person of another race is purportedly a common one.
...own fears were far ranging: fire, the dark, people with one eye, people with goiters, tall blacks, homosexuals, generals, school principals, priests, Lutheran ministers, airplanes, drop forges, fast drivers, sexually aggressive women, large Japanese, psychiatrists, cancer, cheating wives, fistfights, death…
This Warlock character has been vividly painted on the page for all of us to see and recognize in others we have personally known, and even in our own selves which need a bit of correcting as we, it is hoped, evolve and make amends. No use getting all self-righteous and judgmental about an author who wrote a book about a flawed character named Warlock. We must keep in mind this novel is fiction and in no way represents Jim Harrison who made it his life’s work to think deeply about things, and through his writing question or present another point of view. But I have to say, in part, this is some tough going.
...He was bright enough to understand that reality was shot through with large empty spaces, spaces in which nothing whatsoever occurred…
There are three parts to this novel and finally we get to the meat in the last one placed in the tropical clime, and crime, of Florida’s Key West. Again, with too much time on his hands and his wife thousands of miles away in northern Michigan it is inevitable that Johnny will be seeking sexual pleasures outside of marriage even in light of the next big case his boss has sent him to investigate. Warlock simply cannot help himself when it comes to food, booze, and women. He is also never at a loss for worry over what his wife might be up to in her nurse’s uniform back home alone. Like they say, it does take one to know one. But the plot is picking up, thickening in spots, and Warlock is actually becoming more engaging even though it is getting too near the end for any character to make timely and appropriate amends. If only there was something to love in this novel among these many acquaintances we have met along the way. Unlike all other Harrison works of art, this book fails miserably in my becoming even remotely sympathetic or emotionally attached to any of these characters.
...He had rid himself miraculously of the usual Protestant binge toward reducing one’s spirits to the point that no life surprises are possible…
A miracle it is, unless overcoming this Puritanism kills us in the unholy process. Hard to change the indoctrination of a Puritan upbringing. I know firsthand as I was raised a Lutheran. Perhaps what is so unsettling about this novel is its resemblance in ways to my own life, minus the illicit sexual encounters. My father is a WWII veteran, hates the Japanese, has been a homophobe ever since getting hit on in the Navy, hates Barack Obama, loves Donald Trump, and is a person completely unknown to me today. Matter of fact I do not know who these people are who raised me. My parents are both bible thumpers and for decades now, ever since my mother caught my father in the act of numerous adulteries, she has had a bone through his nose as she leads him to weekly bible study and church services. But I contend that the more literature we read the better chance for us to get what we need. For example, Warlock has given me ample opportunities to reassess my life, look back on my past, and prepare for what might be left of the future.
...A lonely birthday had to be an exception to the whole fidelity rap…Thank god I’m normal, he thought…
Any excuse for infidelity. The book centers on deceit and cheating, and finishes with a flurry of said activity. This novel is without a doubt the most absurd work of Harrison’s career. Johnny Lundgren, aka Warlock, is the craziest, most unsophisticated, of his entire oeuvre. The last thing Warlock is is normal.
...He stomped his feet in the mud to keep them warm, thinking that though Florida was overloaded with perverts, it did have sunshine as a counterbalance...He stomped his feet, then did a few scissor jumps to revive circulation...
Though remaining my least favorite work of the gifted Jim Harrison, Warlock is nonetheless an important and necessary read. Certainly his most comical. But think of it also as an opportunity to take a personal inventory. Or maybe just let go and have some fun, which pathetically remains out of reach for a man like me, except for the pages I might yet write exploring my own sexual fantasies of which there are plenty enough to go around the bowl more than twice.
I am at a loss to explain why for the first time after reading this, and now re-reading several of Jim Harrison’s books, I have yet to highlight a sentence or phrase, and I am already at least twelve percent into it. My guess is that the sex-obsessed character of Johnny Lundgren, who goes by the name of Warlock, is being developed in such a way as to leave little doubt that no matter where this story might lead that sordid sexual proclivities will follow. That much is clear. Even his beloved second wife Diana has a tendency to stray once in a while herself. Sex, and desire for sex, is always present in a Jim Harrison composition, but Warlock seems to carry this theme to a degree heretofore unseen.
...Warlock’s father had told him that Japs could hide in these trees because their heads looked like coconuts. Any fool knew that…
In developing this main character, Harrison utilizes everything unseemly in an unevolved man. Sexism, along with bigoted and racist attitudes for Japanese and African Americans, are just a few of the environmental and cultural bents preparing us for what can only be a redemption of sorts as the novel progresses. This is possibly a reader’s test as well in seeing just how complicit his reader might become with this, so far, unsavory main character.
...Warlock in his whiskey haze noted that he could see no panty line under Diana’s dress. He felt terribly sexy suddenly, and pondered the chances of slipping her off into the shrubbery for a quicky...Despite his preoccupation with the Rabun business, his wiener began to swirl in his trousers at the sight of her underthighs and discrete thatch, nestled there like a thrush, nest and all…
Thirty percent into the book and Warlock is still chasing any orifice he might find willing to receive his overeager appendages of both tongue and penis. Meanwhile his nurse-wife is feeding her same lustful nature with methods that satisfy her sexual needs as well. And Diana is not always engaging in sex exclusively with her husband Warlock. Generally, by this stage in his books, and in addition to the sex, Harrison has us into some sort of a sophisticated plot. Instead, and perhaps for some higher purpose, he is belaboring wanton sexualty and apeman tendencies. It seems both Warlock and Diana know who they are married to and accept their adulterous behavior because neither can exist in any other way. Warlock is obviously an extreme version of his immensely popular and fictional Brown Dog character whom Harrison claimed was his alter ego.
...He liked older women for the simple reason that they were less likely to be dumb…
And so on he goes. Unemployed male chauvinist Warlock with too much time on his hands and no hobby or purpose in which to take his mind off female anatomy and what he might do with it given the slightest hint of an opening. Harrison, at the thirty percent mark, has already accomplished a low level supersaturation unexampled in my prior readings of his work. Experienced fans of Jim Harrison know that Warlock must eventually have something redeemable to yet absolve him of his simplemindedness. Or perhaps it is a question for ourselves to answer? Many of the thoughts and actions of Warlock can be wagered with favorable odds that no small number of us have said or done the same at one time or another. That is most likely what is so uncomfortable for me early on in the novel. Perhaps once we all come to grips with our own failings as human beings we can get on to where the book is taking us. It isn’t easy suffering through the rawness of this unleashed beast awash on the page. Interesting that Diana in many respects is his equal.
...I sort of thought you’d make yourself up like a Negro. I was all ready for you to be a Negro…
Warlock would dress up in a tuxedo and black face as the couple would role play in their sexual adventures. Diana wanted to be fucked by a black man and her husband obviously wanted her to be obliged. Not exactly politically correct these days, but certainly an honest portrayal of some people back then, and considering our United States of America elected Donald Trump into the highest office of the land, perhaps a bigoted and racist behavior thriving even still today. But the fantasy of having sex with a person of another race is purportedly a common one.
...own fears were far ranging: fire, the dark, people with one eye, people with goiters, tall blacks, homosexuals, generals, school principals, priests, Lutheran ministers, airplanes, drop forges, fast drivers, sexually aggressive women, large Japanese, psychiatrists, cancer, cheating wives, fistfights, death…
This Warlock character has been vividly painted on the page for all of us to see and recognize in others we have personally known, and even in our own selves which need a bit of correcting as we, it is hoped, evolve and make amends. No use getting all self-righteous and judgmental about an author who wrote a book about a flawed character named Warlock. We must keep in mind this novel is fiction and in no way represents Jim Harrison who made it his life’s work to think deeply about things, and through his writing question or present another point of view. But I have to say, in part, this is some tough going.
...He was bright enough to understand that reality was shot through with large empty spaces, spaces in which nothing whatsoever occurred…
There are three parts to this novel and finally we get to the meat in the last one placed in the tropical clime, and crime, of Florida’s Key West. Again, with too much time on his hands and his wife thousands of miles away in northern Michigan it is inevitable that Johnny will be seeking sexual pleasures outside of marriage even in light of the next big case his boss has sent him to investigate. Warlock simply cannot help himself when it comes to food, booze, and women. He is also never at a loss for worry over what his wife might be up to in her nurse’s uniform back home alone. Like they say, it does take one to know one. But the plot is picking up, thickening in spots, and Warlock is actually becoming more engaging even though it is getting too near the end for any character to make timely and appropriate amends. If only there was something to love in this novel among these many acquaintances we have met along the way. Unlike all other Harrison works of art, this book fails miserably in my becoming even remotely sympathetic or emotionally attached to any of these characters.
...He had rid himself miraculously of the usual Protestant binge toward reducing one’s spirits to the point that no life surprises are possible…
A miracle it is, unless overcoming this Puritanism kills us in the unholy process. Hard to change the indoctrination of a Puritan upbringing. I know firsthand as I was raised a Lutheran. Perhaps what is so unsettling about this novel is its resemblance in ways to my own life, minus the illicit sexual encounters. My father is a WWII veteran, hates the Japanese, has been a homophobe ever since getting hit on in the Navy, hates Barack Obama, loves Donald Trump, and is a person completely unknown to me today. Matter of fact I do not know who these people are who raised me. My parents are both bible thumpers and for decades now, ever since my mother caught my father in the act of numerous adulteries, she has had a bone through his nose as she leads him to weekly bible study and church services. But I contend that the more literature we read the better chance for us to get what we need. For example, Warlock has given me ample opportunities to reassess my life, look back on my past, and prepare for what might be left of the future.
...A lonely birthday had to be an exception to the whole fidelity rap…Thank god I’m normal, he thought…
Any excuse for infidelity. The book centers on deceit and cheating, and finishes with a flurry of said activity. This novel is without a doubt the most absurd work of Harrison’s career. Johnny Lundgren, aka Warlock, is the craziest, most unsophisticated, of his entire oeuvre. The last thing Warlock is is normal.
...He stomped his feet in the mud to keep them warm, thinking that though Florida was overloaded with perverts, it did have sunshine as a counterbalance...He stomped his feet, then did a few scissor jumps to revive circulation...
Though remaining my least favorite work of the gifted Jim Harrison, Warlock is nonetheless an important and necessary read. Certainly his most comical. But think of it also as an opportunity to take a personal inventory. Or maybe just let go and have some fun, which pathetically remains out of reach for a man like me, except for the pages I might yet write exploring my own sexual fantasies of which there are plenty enough to go around the bowl more than twice.
August 18, 2007
Will always be one of my favorite books because it's an exaggerated adventure story, kinky, lacking a moral compass, and just a great read.
November 11, 2008
"Sometimes the only answer to death is lunch."
With that sentence, you know you're squarely in a Jim Harrison novel, in the territory of food, sex, and Big Questions navigated by his strangely obtuse protagonists. Also, you're missing the comma you'd expect after "sometimes," a rhythmic tic that's also typical of Harrison's writing. But Warlock isn't an entirely typical Harrison novel.
Harrison's novels, and especially his recent novels (True North, Returning to Earth, The English Major) tend to be muted, low-key affairs in which there's not much action but a great deal of language. In early novellas such as Legends of the Fall or Revenge, there's no shortage of action, but the action is realistic. Warlock is something of an exception, a larger-than-life tale which casts Lundgren as a gun-toting "troubleshooter" in the service of the eccentric inventor Dr. Rabun, whose home is guarded by lethal dogs.
It's the stuff of childish adventure stories, and it makes for a wild ride. Lundgren, indeed, is a childish man. Take his name, "Johnny," or the fact that he prefers the nickname "Warlock," bestowed on him during a childhood boy-scout camping trip. Take his habit of calling urine "pee-pee." Take, finally, the way he revels in his undercover job with its games of secrecy and its atmosphere of high drama. He's going to have to grow out of it. There's a plot twist waiting in the wings, of course, to force him to do just that.
Warlock is funny, original, and high-spirited. Worth reading.
With that sentence, you know you're squarely in a Jim Harrison novel, in the territory of food, sex, and Big Questions navigated by his strangely obtuse protagonists. Also, you're missing the comma you'd expect after "sometimes," a rhythmic tic that's also typical of Harrison's writing. But Warlock isn't an entirely typical Harrison novel.
Harrison's novels, and especially his recent novels (True North, Returning to Earth, The English Major) tend to be muted, low-key affairs in which there's not much action but a great deal of language. In early novellas such as Legends of the Fall or Revenge, there's no shortage of action, but the action is realistic. Warlock is something of an exception, a larger-than-life tale which casts Lundgren as a gun-toting "troubleshooter" in the service of the eccentric inventor Dr. Rabun, whose home is guarded by lethal dogs.
It's the stuff of childish adventure stories, and it makes for a wild ride. Lundgren, indeed, is a childish man. Take his name, "Johnny," or the fact that he prefers the nickname "Warlock," bestowed on him during a childhood boy-scout camping trip. Take his habit of calling urine "pee-pee." Take, finally, the way he revels in his undercover job with its games of secrecy and its atmosphere of high drama. He's going to have to grow out of it. There's a plot twist waiting in the wings, of course, to force him to do just that.
Warlock is funny, original, and high-spirited. Worth reading.
May 1, 2020
There is a tiny sliver of light when I think about the fact that Jim Harrison is dead, and that is there are many of his books I have not had the pleasure of reading yet. Harrison is a gift, his power to talk about food, booze, sex, art, nature, people, more food, and hunting is just overwhelming. Topped off by his wonderful humor. This particular one, is hilarious and I recommend it highly and unreservedly.
Cheers!
Cheers!
June 1, 2019
Harrison's horniest novel -- and that's saying something. You worry for the man.
It's not terrible. We follow the eponymous antihero through an amusing picaresque adventure -- I was reminded of Elliot Gould in THE LONG GOODBYE, if Gould's Philip Marlowe had an adolescent's obsession with sex and embarrassingly outdated views on race.
Harrison wrote much finer stories. This is one for the completists.
It's not terrible. We follow the eponymous antihero through an amusing picaresque adventure -- I was reminded of Elliot Gould in THE LONG GOODBYE, if Gould's Philip Marlowe had an adolescent's obsession with sex and embarrassingly outdated views on race.
Harrison wrote much finer stories. This is one for the completists.
November 13, 2024
I like Jim Harrison. I am indifferent to Warlock. I simply didn't care about the novel's eponymous protagonist. I really didn't, and I couldn't find any other characters to care about. Don't get me wrong, I like misanthropes. I can care about misanthropes. Warlock is a misanthrope. I just didn't care about him.
September 29, 2019
I liked Warlock, but not at first. Harrison’s novel is written in three acts: the first two parts are insufferable; the third is genius.
Warlock is a married, middle-aged, job-less misanthrope. He is not likable, or even charismatic. Yet, he experiences several adventures worth reading about in this book. The author unveils these directionless adventures through what-I-can-only-call a first-person stream of consciousness style of writing. I didn’t like the style at first. If I’m forced to be stuck in the head of a character, I want to at least like him or her. And Warlock, if anything, is not likable.
But, I do recommend toughening it out until the end of this book. The latter part of the book is filled with twists and turns and humor that, not only tie up the first parts, but make Warlock sympathetic, redeemable. In fact, he seems not-so-bad when we find out about the hidden farce that has surrounded him.
The book is funny – in an ironic sort of way.
If you are looking for a book that you have to wrestle with a bit that eventually has a pay-off, give Warlock a try.
You’ll be better for it.
Warlock is a married, middle-aged, job-less misanthrope. He is not likable, or even charismatic. Yet, he experiences several adventures worth reading about in this book. The author unveils these directionless adventures through what-I-can-only-call a first-person stream of consciousness style of writing. I didn’t like the style at first. If I’m forced to be stuck in the head of a character, I want to at least like him or her. And Warlock, if anything, is not likable.
But, I do recommend toughening it out until the end of this book. The latter part of the book is filled with twists and turns and humor that, not only tie up the first parts, but make Warlock sympathetic, redeemable. In fact, he seems not-so-bad when we find out about the hidden farce that has surrounded him.
The book is funny – in an ironic sort of way.
If you are looking for a book that you have to wrestle with a bit that eventually has a pay-off, give Warlock a try.
You’ll be better for it.
July 26, 2020
I can’t say I really disliked the book since I finished it in a few days, but there just wasn’t much of a storyline, and what was there, was predictable. Was anyone surprised that Rabun was employing Warlock and sending him out of town in order to carry on an affair with Diane, Warlock’s wife? And for Warlock being supposedly so intelligent, how did he not realize this? Well, probably because he seemed to be able to bed a women in every town he entered. Perhaps Harrison was aiming for comedy, but I found most of the characters quite unsettling, and all the sex was just filler for a plot that was nearly nonexistent.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 5, 2021
Meh. Flow of the writing is good but expected better from the author of Legends of the Fall. Total incel bait. Avoid.
November 7, 2021
This audible book was created with a number of others in 2019 after the death of the author. This was evidently motivated by a belief that this would be financially profitable. The book was originally published in 1983.
The chapters in this audible book are about 10 minutes long which as far as I am concerned is an ideal and five star chapter length. Regrettably this is one of the best things that I have to say about this book which I otherwise thought was a continuing disappointment about this author who I once held in relatively high regard. The books that have been dredged up for 2019 revitalization seem to me to be a somewhat sorry lot.
The main character is once again a sex addled weirdo with a little admirable to be said about him or his activities as far as I can say. I gave the book 3 stars because of my past regard for the author although probably honestly I should only give it two stars. But I cannot willingly suffer that personal degradation of admitting that I have actually listened to this entire book and regretting that I might have one or two more in my immediate future.
The chapters in this audible book are about 10 minutes long which as far as I am concerned is an ideal and five star chapter length. Regrettably this is one of the best things that I have to say about this book which I otherwise thought was a continuing disappointment about this author who I once held in relatively high regard. The books that have been dredged up for 2019 revitalization seem to me to be a somewhat sorry lot.
The main character is once again a sex addled weirdo with a little admirable to be said about him or his activities as far as I can say. I gave the book 3 stars because of my past regard for the author although probably honestly I should only give it two stars. But I cannot willingly suffer that personal degradation of admitting that I have actually listened to this entire book and regretting that I might have one or two more in my immediate future.
March 30, 2025
No one should bother with this book. Sure, you could argue that it’s trying to say something about identity, agency, mortality, masculinity, or purpose… but if you did, I’d very much roll my eyes at you. The concept is intriguing, but anything interesting about it gets absolute subsumed by the grotesque.
This book is absolutely packed with severe misogyny, racism, homophobia, hyper-sexualization, and even a bit of pedophilia - far beyond what might be considered just a product of its time. It's not incidental. It's pervasive.
The story follows a shitty guy doing shitty things and never facing any real or impactful consequences. If it were better written, it might come off as a commentary or critique of wealth, toxic masculinity, and moral rot, but the protagonist is deeply un-self-aware, and the book doesn’t offer any lens or distance that would suggest it IS critiquing these things. It just wallows in them; gratuitously; relentlessly.
This my first Jim Harrison book; that was a mistake. Eventually I'll have to read another because of his reputation, but it's now very low on my list or reading priorities.
This book is absolutely packed with severe misogyny, racism, homophobia, hyper-sexualization, and even a bit of pedophilia - far beyond what might be considered just a product of its time. It's not incidental. It's pervasive.
The story follows a shitty guy doing shitty things and never facing any real or impactful consequences. If it were better written, it might come off as a commentary or critique of wealth, toxic masculinity, and moral rot, but the protagonist is deeply un-self-aware, and the book doesn’t offer any lens or distance that would suggest it IS critiquing these things. It just wallows in them; gratuitously; relentlessly.
This my first Jim Harrison book; that was a mistake. Eventually I'll have to read another because of his reputation, but it's now very low on my list or reading priorities.
November 15, 2016
The second Jim Harrison novel I've read Warlock (1982) is something of a departure from his debut, Wolf A False Memoir. This novel actually has a plot-although it is ruminative in places-the second half in particular plays out like a conventional thriller. In this novel Johnny Lungren aka "Warlock" is at his wits ends, he's married to a beautiful, smart nurse and is unemployed. He is living a sort of torpor until his wife introduces him to an eccentric doctor/inventor who hires him to trouble shot problems with his investments. Johnny is an engaging character who voices opinions on many things but is especially fixated on food and sex-he's something of a foodie obsessed with meals and cooking and when not lusting after his wife he' picking up strange women while on the job. I understand that this is something of a deviation from his early books, I still found it engaging and entertaining.
July 27, 2018
Harrison must have been one horny old coot when he wrote this one. I almost put it down before I got through the first section. Sex seemed to be the unifying theme of every chapter. Once he finally got into an actual story I was able to accept the (still frequent) sex scenes as part of that story. It's hard to find any redeeming value in any of the characters in this book. I've read a lot of Harrison. This is far and away my least favorite.
September 26, 2023
"Warlock" is a literary version of Karl Hiaasen's work. Warlock would fit right in in Hiaasen's Florida -- well, that is where he would up after traveling from his Upper Peninsula, MI home. Harrison's way with words is unbendingly creative and always thought provoking even while evoking endless humor.
As a Harrison fan, I found this book to be satisfyingly unique among his other works. A must read for anyone with a sardonic sense of humor.
As a Harrison fan, I found this book to be satisfyingly unique among his other works. A must read for anyone with a sardonic sense of humor.
September 27, 2021
This book had a pretty strange pace, wondering if this was Jim Harrison's final draft? ...like any good art, I had a reaction..even though it was negative. This won't stop me from reading some of his other stuff! LOVE YOU, JH!
August 14, 2023
Was not what I thought it would be - thoughts of sex, acting out thoughts, remembering the acting out, thinking about the next time. Infidelity simply for the sake of putting it on the paper. There was a plot in there some place, but the gratuitous sex pretty much over-whelmed.
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July 8, 2024Narrator Johnny Lundgren (Warlock was his Cub Scout name) on his wife Diana: “Those few who have seen her bending over nude to fetch her clothes are likely to remember it on their deathbed in their respective retirement colonies in Florida, Arizona, California.”
October 30, 2024
unpredictably rewarding. couldn’t put it down
Yes. The description s , details and plot twists were engaging. Michigan is one of the characters. It made me nostalgic for the Midwest.
Yes. The description s , details and plot twists were engaging. Michigan is one of the characters. It made me nostalgic for the Midwest.
May 25, 2017
Re-reading Harrison and he's even better the 2nd time through.
June 24, 2020
Après une première partie réjouissante, où le protagoniste passe de fantasmes sexuels à l'art culinaire avec délectation, le roman prend une autre voie, plus foutraque. Une lecture plaisante et amusante par ses excès et sa liberté.
October 24, 2021
Brilliant existential navel gazing.
February 20, 2022
What a waste of good Michigan trees. And that's a hard thing for me to say, as I'm usually a big Jim Harrison fan.
November 3, 2022
Fun but a little goofy sometimes.
February 3, 2023
Good, not his best. But good
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August 6, 2023Very unique writing style; amazing how some people can think of such intricate ways to say something. Wacky story but I liked it
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