Guest Book Review: SOUTH OF SUPERIOR

Friday's e-mail brought a delightful surprise. It was an unsolicited rave review for Ellen Airgood's novel, South of Superior, and writer Tim Bazzett has kindly given me permission to publish it here on my blog. What a pleasure! So without further ado--

*****
South of Superior, by Ellen Airgood, New York: Riverhead Books, 374 pages, $25.95

- a book review by Tim Bazzett

I LOVE THIS BOOK! Can't tell you how many times I said so out loud to myself, to my wife and anyone else around, while I was reading it. And I'm not really sure how to explain it, because it's such a quiet story, a sadly sweet, wise and wonderful look at all the ups and downs of regular folks, many of them barely scraping by, in a small town at the top of Michigan's Upper Peninsula (U.P.). And it's told in the most delightfully simple and ordinary language--none of that so-called "muscular prose" often employed by the products of countless MFA programs around the country. Because author Ellen Airgood, who has run a diner in Grand Marais, Michigan, for nearly twenty years, seems to have learned how to write by waitressing! Which, when you stop and think about it, would indeed offer endless opportunities to meet and observe people of all sorts and draw some interesting conclusions. And since her fictional town of McAllaster is also a tourist town, just “south of Superior,” i.e. on the stony shores of Lake Superior, the mix of humanity Airgood had to observe and draw from was even further leavened.

And Airgood is a masterful observer of people, with all their strengths and weaknesses, faults and frailties. I think what makes this book so pleasant to read is the way the author and her protagonist, 35-year-old Madeline Stone, have learned to focus on the positive things in life. Airgood seems to have absorbed this attitude very well and employs it to her advantage in the telling of her heroine's tale. Madeline, who was born in McAllaster but abandoned by her teenage unwed mother in Chicago at a very young age, was raised by a loving adoptive single mom, Emmy. After Emmy's death from cancer, Madeline is unmoored and grief-stricken and decides to leave her long-time waitressing job in the Windy City and return to the town where she was born, hundreds of miles to the north. She breaks off her engagement and takes a pseudo-job in McAllaster as live-in helper with two aging sisters, Arbutus and Gladys. The latter had been the late-in-life companion to Madeline's now-deceased grandfather, Joe Stone.

Madeline has many "issues" to work out in regard to her biological family, who loomed large in the lives of McAllaster folks for generations. Here's my nutshell synopsis: Sometimes motherhood goes beyond biology and is more than an accident of birth. Sometimes motherhood is a conscious decision that has nothing to do with biology. This first becomes clearly evident when Madeline begins to realize her love for neglected, wise-beyond-his-years, four-year-old Greyson Hopkins. Grey is the son of Randi, a wild and undisciplined teenage unwed mother in McAllaster, and Madeline becomes Grey's caretaker following a sad if predictable chain of events. Sound familiar? Then you're starting to get why this book is so "together" - so GOOD.

... [I]t fell to Madeline to entertain and watch over him. It turned out she didn't mind this at all. Taking care of Greyson helped her keep her mind off herself. Plus she loved him.

And yes, there is an adult love interest for Madeline too, in the person of divorced and physically damaged Paul Garceau, a transplant from downstate who runs a pizzeria in McAllaster. But that's enough of the story. Here are smaller things I loved about South of Superior, details that I connected with on a more personal level:

1) A nine o’clock curfew siren that blew every night in McAllaster, at which time the kids would run for home. I remember such a curfew from my own childhood more than fifty years ago, but this story takes place in the present. The curfew makes McAllaster seem even more caught in a time warp, but in a good and charming way.

2) The character of old Mary Feather, living alone in a makeshift shack in the woods, selling fish and maple syrup to the locals and tourists for a living, yet respected and loved by all the old-timers. She reminded me of "Apple Mary" an eccentric and mysterious character from my own childhood in the fifties, who also lived alone in a shack in the country, surrounded by a grove of old twisted apple trees. Seldom seen, she was a source of wonder to my brothers and friends and me every time we passed her place on the way to a nearby lake to go swimming.

3) The long abandoned and closed-up Hotel Leppinen, which Madeline buys from Gladys and Arbutus and restores and reopens. Airgood bases this on an actual old hotel in Grand Marais, but I thought of a similar one I once walked through with my mother several years ago, then long closed but retaining all of its ancient fixtures and furnishings. It was the Birch Lodge Resort and Sanitarium, dating back to 1911, on Carp Lake in the U.P. After a bit of online research, I've learned the Birch Lodge has been bought and is being restored. Hooray! Shades of Madeline Stone and the Hotel Leppinen! There is also the Osceola Hotel, right here in my own small town of Reed City, closed up, crumbling and for sale for several years now, after a rich and storied history of more than a hundred years.

4) An expression Mary Feather uses about Greyson's hapless mother, Randi: "Some folks are just born to suck hind teat for life." My own grandfather used to use that expression, "sucking hind teat" to describe the loser as he added up our scores while playing “Michigan 500” rummy with my brothers and me. It always made us boys snicker and my mom frown disapprovingly.

5) This spot-on description of the scrubland of much of the interior of Michigan's UP (and some of the Lower Peninsula too):

It got worse as they headed inland. They passed the scattered cabins and camps that were too lonesome and poor to be quaint. There were old trailers surrounded by broken-down cars and trucks, discarded toilets and cast-off woodstoves, black plastic garbage bags stuffed with God knew what. It all sat listless in the sun, as eternal as the big lake and the pointed firs. Dogs lay panting on short chains in bare yards, and everywhere was the barren, thin-lipped look of poverty.

This passage brought to mind the pages-long description from the opening of Wolf: A False Memoir, the first novel of another Michigan writer, Jim Harrison, which I read in college forty years ago.

6) Although Madeline has a cat, Marley, which she brings with her from Chicago, and of which the two old sisters become very fond too, Airgood also makes a gracious and wise nod to dog lovers in this line, as old Mary Feather strokes her dog's head:

...[T]he truth was that a dog was a good thing to have. A dog steadied you. Just the smell of a dog, the feel of its fur, the way a dog lived, up front and simple.

Enough said. I have two dogs. Love 'em to death.

But I blather on and on, I know. I'd better stop. Suffice it to say that this "waitress" Ellen Airgood can write like nobody's business, and South of Superior has taken its place on my list of favorite books. Five stars, hell! I'd give it TEN stars! I will recommend it highly and without reservation to all of my booklover friends.

***

And there you have it, a second opinion on Books in Northport, confirming the first. Booklover Tim Bazzet and his books can be found online at Rathole Books. He lives in Reed City and is the author of the Reed City Boy trilogy and a new memoir, Booklover. Check him out! And thanks again, Tim!

Now, who will bring the old Osceola Hotel back to life for travelers coming Up North?

The Garden Works Seven Days a Week, Too, in Summer

How is the vegetable garden like the small-town bookseller in summer? The answer is the title of this post.

Below is a different view of the garden, showing the meadow that stretches out behind it--the meadow where autumn olive has been eradicated (a lot of work involved in that project, too) and the area now safe for grasses, persistent alfalfa clumps and lots and lots of milkweed, which I'm happy to say has finally begun to attract the monarch butterflies.


Cukes, collards, squash and eggplant to the left, beans and strawberries on the ground, tomatoes in the right-hand back corner from this view, with peppers out of sight. The peppers would be in the lower-right corner, so see the top picture again to spot them. They are sharing their straw bales with pansies, as the tomatoes and cukes share with nasturtiums.


Here's a closer shot of those tomatoes and nasturtiums, with squash in the background.


I love the way the collard leaves hold and collect water. Poor thing, though--it's been nibbled a bit. Well, we all get nibbled a bit once in a while, but we keep on working.


Here is a lovely little lavender star, holding the morning dew. Do you know what it is? When it turns from blossom to fruit, it will transform into an eggplant, but right now it looks like something that should be decorating an expensive French pastry. Not to take away from the beauty (below) of the hardier, hard-working, peasant-like squash blossoms. My dear French landlady in Paris years ago thought I was a "delicate flower." Where did she ever get that idea? If I am a flower at all, surely I am a squash blossom!

And now I can't write any more, because it's time to leave the garden to work on its own while Sarah and I get up to Northport to do some bookselling!

Tribal News

Eyaawing Museum and Cultural Center in Peshawbestown is holding a series of cultural presentations this season. Arlene Marozas came by with a poster for her presentation tomorrow, July 23, 1-3 p.m. Her topic is “Jingle Dress Values & Ethics,” (which reminds me to note that pow-wow this year will be August 19-20). Here are the rest of the cultural events scheduled this summer at Eyaawing:

July 27, 1-3 p.m. Carrie Leaureaux, “Anishnaabemowin & Cultural Presentation”
July 30, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Doris Winslow, “The Making of Clay Storytellers”
August 6, 1-2 p.m. Eva Petoskey, “Dream Speak: Anishinaabe Poetry”
August 12, 1-4 p.m. Nancy Fuller, “Teaching Quilting” (please bring your own supplies)
August 13, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Cindy Patek, “Finger Weaving”
August 20, 1-2 p.m. Linda D. Theis, “Learned Optimism and Resilience”
August 27, 1-2:30 p.m. Karen Sinclair, “Maori of New Zealand”

There will be additional events in September. For further information, call 231-534-7768.

How to Survive a Heat Wave (Tips from Sarah)

Chill out--


Keep hydrated--


Stay in the shade--


--Or get in the water.


Whatever you do, remain serene.


And if you can, come to Northport!

Sometimes We Even Get Outdoors

That is, Sarah and I get out in the morning, and she explores and takes account of her domain while I water the garden. Sometimes we get rolling early and visit the beach before work. Evenings are outdoor time, for sure, and occasionally an expedition for the whole family. But summer also means long indoor stretches for the working team that we are. Sigh! It’s been very “warm” lately, too, and this past week sometimes not even a puppy visit could rouse Sarah (in background) from her summer torpor. Dogs are very wise about conserving their energy and slowing time down.

While the hours may go slowly for Sarah in the bookstore, however, the summer speeds by for me. When July arrives, the days and even the weeks start to blur into one another. What day of the week is it? What week is it? One thing is certain: they keep rushing past. I’ve been swimming once in Good Harbor, and another time we made it to Maple City for dinner, with a scenic drive afterward. I can report also that (1) wherever you go in Leelanau County right now, the lines for ice cream are pretty long, and (2) it finally rained overnight on Sunday. Big storm, with plenty of thunder and lightning. Next day the heat wave continued unabated.

The world of books keeps a pretty fast, hot summer pace, too. Ellen Airgood was interviewed by Linda Wertheimer for NPR’s “Weekend Edition.” If, like me, you missed it on July 17, you can go online and read it or stream it from the NPR site. Bonnie Jo Campbell also continues to rake in the positive media attention. I could not be more pleased about the attention these Michigan novelists are getting this summer.

In Northport we are gearing up, both at Dog Ears Books and the Leelanau Township Library, for Loreen Niewenhuis. She will be in town on Tuesday, July 26, with A 1000-Mile Walk on the Beach, a book the distributors can hardly keep in stock. And the following Friday the perennially popular mystery writer Elizabeth Buzzelli will be at 106 Waukazoo at 4 p.m. with Dead Dogs and Englishmen. Emily Kincaid and Deputy Dolly ride again!

And that’s not all--.


Brand-new this season is West Michigan Pike, another magical antique postcard tour from Christine Byron and Tom Wilson, the folks you brought you Vintage Views of Leelanau. WMP tells in words and pictures the story of the first shoreline drive from Chicago to Mackinac, (There are also West Michigan Pike posters, bookmarks and bumper stickers, and the bookmark is free when you buy the book.) My own family first drove north from Chicago to Traverse City in 1962, and half a dozen years later I was living in Traverse City and visiting my parents when they camped at Interlochen State Park, so I find it fascinating to see all the familiar places along the way in much earlier times than I ever saw. Byron and Wilson (a.k.a. Christine and Tom) have reproduced old postcards, travel posters, informational brochures, business cards and the like. An intriquing promotion for the Occidental Hotel in Muskegon (and don’t you love that name, Occidental Hotel?) reads in part, “The hotel has 320 rooms, 280 of them with private baths.” Younger generation, take note!

Also hot off the presses and just in Monday morning is The View From Sunnybank, by Traverse City’s Dee Blair, the first volume of collected newspaper columns (90 in this book, with future books to come) from this talented gardener and writer. The unassuming author says modestly that this is a “perfect bathroom book,” as the two-to-three page chapters are short and sweet. I’ve loved Dee’s writing for a long time and still remember my only visit to her garden (on the Friendly Garden Club’s annual tour one year), so I’m more than happy to have this book and share her knowledge and refreshing viewpoint with others.

My own garden—mostly vegetables--has had its successes and failures this year and has been a learning season for me in that regard. Lettuce, arugula and chard have loved the shade and have been very happy in their little wooden boxes. Kale and spinach in the sun, on the other hand, were pretty much disasters. Why do I ever plant spinach at all? It doesn’t want to grow for me. Chard cooperates, spinach no.



Dinner al fresco Monday evening. Storms held off. Sarah danced attendance. Sarah loves company, and company loves Sarah. It was all good. We were outdoors!!!

Completely Frustrated

I read a blog on the Record-Eagle site today and wanted to leave a comment. Signed up for a password. Got it. Tried to leave a comment. Nothing doing. My name appears, but I can't paste in my comment. Signed in with my Google account--same result. Okay, you can go read the original column yourself if you're interested. The author cited Plato as an inspiration for the framers of the U.S. Constitution, which to me was a very scary idea. Here's my response:

I highly recommend THE TRIAL OF SOCRATES, by Stone, for a rare, critical look at Plato’s political philosophy. To cite only one example, Plato believed that his philosopher-kings should govern an ignorant populace with lies. This is hardly (one hopes!) the view of our Founding Fathers. As for Aristotle continuing Plato’s dualism, that is a complicated subject, but suffice it to say that he did not share Plato’s disdain for the natural, material world, for this world. He believed, in fact, that the body is the “form” of the soul, the soul the beginning and end of action. It was Aquinas who resurrected Aristotle and brought his philosophy into Catholic thought, where the basic idea was to bring people to any right idea, even the existence of God, by way of reason.


Every philosopher is at heart either a Platonist or an Aristotelian. Plato didn’t get everything wrong, and Aristotle didn’t get everything right, but I think most Americans would prefer to be reasoned with rather than lied to.

I may go back and see if I can type in the comment, though it wouldn't let me do that, either, the other times. Anyone else have a problem leaving comments on the Record-Eagle site? Got ideas for how to make it work?

The Birds Beg of You--Please, please!

Would you want to see traps set on the beach? Maybe poisoned bait? No? Well, how about those beautiful, brightly colored balloons and ribbons from graduation, birthday parties and anniversaries? There are not so beautiful later, as Lake Michigan litter, and are a danger to unwary birds.

Evolution did not prepare birds to expect bits of rubber and grosgrain at the wrack line or sloshing in the waves at the edge of the water. The birds’ brains see worms in the ribbon shapes, something tasty to eat. Choking and death can result.


The remnants of balloon turn to sticky, waterproof glue—and birds do not have Goo-Gone at their disposal!


Please, for the birds’ sake, dispose of that pretty party refuse properly, whether your own or someone else’s you find along the beach.

This collection was picked up in the course of one morning’s walk along the beach at Peterson Park in Leelanau Township. It isn't nearly as much fun to pick up as beach stones, but since my friend Kathie alerted me to the dangers, I can't simply walk on and leave it there.

Lazy or Just Links-Mad?

Today will be a potluck of links. The only thing they have in common is that I found them interesting and think others will, too, but of course you can pick and choose. It was Dawn King’s post this morning that convinced me to make today the day. I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while. Dawn chides Congress for not doing what the rest of us have to do to keep our jobs. See if you agree with her.

Next, how much do you know about the government of the United States and the country’s political and economic structure? This site, as you will no doubt see, has certain inherent biases, but it’s instructive nonetheless. Also, it not only tells you which of your answers are counted wrong, but also gives the correct answer and explanation. Test yourself!

Then there this heartwarming story with a twist—and an incredibly beautiful photographic image.

If you’re not stuck with a slow dialup connection, check out this video of Shakespeare and Co. bookstore in Paris. Got dreams? This place makes dreams come true. Actually, I looked at two different videos and can’t remember which is which, so try both.

Finally, here’s something on gardening.

That's it. Enjoy! I’m off to the farmers’ market in a light sprinkle. I'll have photos--of something or other!--another day.

P.S. 10:30 a.m. Michigan time. Here's one more link, my own! I've posted photos of the market over on my other blog. You should just know that this isn't even the half of it. What are you doing sitting home?

Reading Someone Else's Mail

I didn’t realize when I picked up the mail that a piece that should have gone into a friend’s box had inadvertently been put in ours, and before I realized the error my eye had been caught by a headline and photo: “Robinette’s Turns 100: Switch to retail helps Michigan farm last a century.” Wouldn’t you want to read the rest of the story, too? Now Robinette’s Apple Haus & Winery, the fifth generation of this concern is still, as the article notes, “clinging to the northeast edge of Grand Rapids ... while every other farm in the area has disappeared.”

It wasn’t as if I’d torn open an envelope to read a letter addressed to someone else. Fruit Grower News is a monthly tabloid, the July issue 40 pages of news and advertisements. I called our friend to say I had his mail but wanted to read a couple pieces in it, so unless he was in a big rush I’d take it back and ask the postmaster to put it in his box tomorrow morning. Here are some of the things I learned:

The Agricultural Jobs, Opportunities, Benefits and Security Act, “a legislative proposal that sought to remedy U.S. agriculture’s labor dilemma,” is probably dead in the water. Supposedly, the Administration wants a comprehensive immigration reform bill, with a single set of rules to handle immigration and labor enforcement, despite the fact (this was the editor’s point of view) that the comprehensive approach has been tried before, did not and cannot address agriculture’s unique needs, and was in its earlier guise “dragged down by baggage from other industries.”

Another way agricultural concerns have been pushed to the back burner is that funding from USDA to land-grant universities (this is from a separate article) has “been stretched to its limits by increased demands without a concurrent increase in public funding.” The Cooperative Extension service, therefore, has been cutting programs in some areas, looking for private funds in others. “Gone are the days when every county had a fruit or vegetable Extension agent who could regularly visit neighboring farms.” The financial troubles extend back into the universities and affect research, as well. Departments are shrinking, being phased out and combined with other departments under more headings. The last line of this article notes the hope that “fruit and vegetable industry partners will continue to cover more of [research] expenses,” which is not a hope that comforts me. It sounds too much like the pharmaceutical industry subsidizing drug studies and meetings of the American Psychiatric Association. Research beholding to industry cannot be fully free or objective. That last sentence is my opinion, not the FGN editor’s.

An article headlined “Agriculture must use water more efficiently” includes four general recommendations: modification to tillage practices; expanded use of cover crops; improvement in the delivery of irrigation water; and hydroponics. I’m all for cover crops. Making irrigation more efficient can’t be a bad thing, either. I’m on the fence when it comes to hydroponics, and I’ve become a little more skeptical than formerly about no-till farming. No-till, I’ve found out, is more highly reliant on herbicides, so is there really a net savings of costs to the farmer or lowered reliance on petroleum products? I don’t know enough about hydroponics to speak on the subject but am curious about chemical inputs there. After all, it takes more than water to grow healthy plants.

In the not-so-bad news category, there was no increase in losses to honeybee colonies this past year. In the surprising bad news category we learn that local farmers in some areas of the country are seeing serious drops in their farmers’ market income, with more and more vendors--not necessarily farmers--getting into the act and buyers wanting prices so low that growers can be forced to sell at a loss. The wait-and-see-but-keep-your-eye-on-it news is that climate change, specifically warming trends, may mean that some fruit and nut tree crops will have to shift further north for the winter chill these crops require.

There was much more, all of it fascinating, all of it either affecting your household grocery budget already or poised to do so in the future. I don’t understand why we are supposed to care about which movie star is divorcing or having an out-of-wedlock baby. Everyone who follows the news hears and reads about the stock market and retail business sector. Agriculture? Do you know what’s going on? Where does your food come from? Do you know?

Fruit Growers News is published by Great American Publishing in Sparta, Michigan. The articles referenced above appear in the July issue, Volume 50, Number 7.

Vacation Bloodbath! Murder and Mayhem Abound!

Murder most foul! Evil among us! What can it be but the season’s new murder mysteries, and why is it that relaxing vacation reading so often goes in this direction? Why would scaring ourselves to death be “escape”? I have a few tentative answers, but I’m interested in what others think. You? If you are a reader of murder mysteries, why do you think they are so appealing to so many people—especially on vacation?

Mystery writer hopeful and amateur sleuth Emily Kincaid, as she hopes for a sale of her latest manuscript, ventures into darker waters in Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli’s fourth book in the Kincaid series, Dead Dogs and Englishmen, out this summer. Bad things were done by not-so-nice people in previous books, but his time Emily comes face to face with pure evil. The knotty question is whether the evil is only in the mind (and whose mind), or has it been acted out? Someone is responsible for the corpse at the beginning of the book, the dead dogs, the family who has disappeared, but is it the creepy Englishman? And how much of his manuscript (yes, another aspiring writer!) is based on his own past?

There are new developments in Deputy Dolly’s life, too, and in the sometimes thorny friendship between Dolly and Elizabeth.

I went on to Leetsville where I drove by the police station. Dolly’s car wasn’t there. There were lots of other places I should have gone—like home to Sorrow [Emily’s dog]. I could use the rest of the day to write, begin the new mystery about dead skeletons Dolly and I found out in Sandy Lake. I liked what happened in that investigation. I liked that we could bring a family together. I liked the way I came out looking. Still, I didn’t know if I had a whole book there or not. What I needed to do was get started, make notes, fill out an outline as best I could, start gathering details, maybe even dare to ask Dolly how she remembered things—but probably not. She was still mad that I’d included her in my first book. I’d fight that battle when I got there. And if she was mad at me about the books, she was going to get a whole lot madder when I did what I’d decided to do—about her and her ‘problem.’

Doesn’t that make you curious about Dolly’s ‘problem,’ and don’t you want to go back and read the earlier books, too, if you haven’t already?

Aaron Stander’s newest offering looks backward and is a “prequel” (can you tell I haven’t yet fully accepted that neologism?) to the four previous novels. In Medieval Murders, we meet a younger Sheriff Ray Elkins. Back before he moved north to Cedar County, We see Ray him teaching criminal justice at a large (unnamed) Midwestern state university, when three members of the English Department are murdered, who else to solve the crimes but the future Up North sheriff?

“So explain this to me, you get a Ph.D. and get an entry level salary for seven years. Then what?” asked Pascoe as they made the final survey of the living room.

“You might get tenured if...”

“If what?” asked Pascoe.

“If you’ve done the right things professionally. If you haven’t screwed up politically, and if your department has the funding for a tenure position.”

“And what happens if you don’t? What was Sheila’s future?”

“Don’t know enough about Sheila to tell you. But, generally speakng, you might get lucky and find another tenure track position, usually at a smaller school. And the money would be less.”

“And if you’re not lucky?”

“People get one-year gigs for someone on sabbatical. Others do adjunct work. The pay is lousy, so they teach lots of sections at three or four different schools, live in their cars. A few get jobs at community colleges. And some, probably the smart ones, get out of academe and do something else....”

Like writing mystery novels? Or opening a bookstore? Think of the possibilities!