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 reading 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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