The Big Seven: A Faux Mystery by Jim Harrison (review)

Jim Harrison’s twentieth published work of adult fiction continues the story of Simon Sunderson, the protagonist of his 2011 novel The Great Leader. As the title suggests, the novel’s through line is driven by Sunderson’s daily struggle to come to terms with the seven deadly sins. Although anger, pride, sloth, and gluttony are in evidence, lust gives him the most trouble. A retired Michigan state trooper from the Upper Peninsula (UP), Sunderson is trying to lead a sober and orderly life in a remote forest cabin there, fishing, camping, hunting, and enjoying the companionship of his buddy, Marion. But distractions or, more accurately, temptations of the flesh continually intrude: his sexually promiscuous adopted daughter, Mona, needs rescuing in Paris; his young neighbor, Lily Ames, is killed in a shootout and her sister Monica offers sexual consolation; his neighbor in Marquette, Delphine, flashes him as she gardens and does yoga poses. And then there’s Sunderson’s ex-wife, Diane, whose recurring visits stimulate romantic reunion fantasies that are partially fulfilled at the end of the novel.

Also intruding on Sunderson’s quest for an orderly life are the depredations of the Ames clan: the UP poster family for mayhem of every variety. Because their property abuts his, encounters with troublesome clan members are inevitable, and one of them quickly instigates the faux mystery that provides the novel’s subtitle and informs its plot: someone is systematically poisoning family members. Could it be Monica, with whom Sunderson is sexually involved; her cousin Kate, who, with Monica, does much of the cooking for the family; Sara, their abused aunt; Lemuel, their uncle, a likeable bird watcher and budding author who routinely sleeps with his young nieces; or could all of them be in cahoots? Sunderson’s detective instincts kick in and he begins an investigation, but his involvement with various family members presents ethical dilemmas. Is Lemuel, for whom Sunderson is serving reluctantly as first reader for Lemuel’s novel-in-progress, murdering family members to provide material for his book? Has Monica seduced Sunderson to distract him from pursuing his investigation? Since he is now retired from law enforcement, is he ethically obligated to ascertain the guilt or innocence of these new friends and turn them in if he finds them to be culpable? Did his intrusion into their lives precipitate the murders, and, if so, how much moral responsibility does he bear for these crimes?

Sunderson’s encounters with Ames-generated mayhem motivate him to begin an essay on violence, which he believes to be the eighth deadly sin. This endeavor, however, is fraught with difficulties. He finds it problematic to argue for violence as the eighth deadly sin when “[t]here didn’t seem to be a firm theological basis for adding violence to the list of Seven Deadly Sins. All religions at times seem to officially revel in violence and the Middle East appears never to have recovered from the Crusades” (186). Moreover, however much he deplores violence and becomes heartsick at the frequency with which it occurs in daily life, particularly that which involves children, he often finds violence a useful tool in dealing effectively with various Ames family members, and when he reflects on the 2008 financial crisis, he endorses a violent means of meting out justice to its perpetrators: “The Borgias had enough money and power to get away with evil, a little like New York bankers and brokers in the recent nauseating recession . . . Sunderson felt it was obvious that they should set up a guillotine down on the Battery and execute these bankers and brokers, grind up their bodies, and make them into elite sausage” (156–57).

Although Sunderson doesn’t make much progress on his study of violence, Harrison does a fine job of elucidating its complexities as he relates Sunderson’s reflections on the topic. The “faux mystery” that undergirds the novel’s plot is exactly that: It’s pretty obvious who’s been doing the...