This wonderful book is set in the U. P. – the upper peninsula of Michigan, a wonderful wilderness landscape that Michigan often forgets is part of the state. (And that is not all bad). Youpers are unique and only a geographic designation makes them a part of the lower peninsula.
This book had to be written by someone who lives there. Ellen Airgood runs the West Bay Diner in Grand Marais, MI (one of our favorite places from our hike) and has the special personality that has allowed her to listen to the elders and to catch the stories and the personalities that dot the isolated communities.
Living in a small town, I know these people and I understand the struggles that are so different from the large cities, like Chicago where the principal character – Madeline comes from. I love the connection with Madeline Island, even if it was unintentional.
This was a relaxing read with a fun cast of characters. You can guess a little of the ending early on, but the fact that it is a happy ending should not deter you from readind this novel.
The lake does not play a big role in the story or the lives of the individuals, but it presence is important to everyone and to the setting of the story.
“Behind her, over the low rooftops of the stores, Lake Superior crashed to shore in huge white-capped waves. There was something magic in that endless turn of water, something oceanic and wild and old, something that would outlast the petty arguments of customers and cashiers.”
“A seagull keened. It was sneaking up on her, but this remote was starting to seem normal to her. She remembered how it looked from on top of the hill that first morning: a tiny clearing ina vast wilderness of trees, Lake Superior spread out before it like the sea.”
She also captures the reality of small town life – “It ain’t everybody who can liver here, she said finally. “You’ll live poor. Like a farmer plowing old stony ground. You’ll never have much of nothing. Except troubles. They’ll come and they’ll be hard to fix.”
“McAllaster was a kind of tribe. This wasn’t cozy or nice. Sensed that it was an equation that membership would exact a price: the loss of privacy, anonymity, certain freedoms she’d taken for granted in Chicago, maybe the loss of the right to selfishness. Everybody in this tribe didn’t love each other. They disagreed and gossiped and argued: they laid traps for each other and rejoiced when the trap was sprung; they relished placing blame wherever it would stick and took pleasure in one another’s mistakes. But when there was trouble, there was help.”
Settle in for a pleasant read and take a trip South of Superior.
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