Reviews
Downstream From Here: A Big Life in a Small Place
by Charles R. Eisendrath
The author was a Time Magazine foreign correspondent who ceaselessly roamed the world and was as rootless as an artificial Christmas tree. He was the bureau chief in a South American country with a wife and two small children when he was overwhelmed with the urge to put down some roots and make a home for his family. And it just so happened he had inherited a farmhouse and 140+ acres of land on the south arm of the Lake Charlevoix that is grandfather bought on the last day of World War II.
This charming and enjoyable book of essays is part autobiography, part musing on journalism, and a whole lot of putting down roots in northern Michigan. And by putting down roots I mean literally putting down roots. One of the first things Eisendrath does after moving to the farm is to plant ten acres of cherry trees as a cash crop. This leads to a none too titillating discussion of the sex life of a cherry tree, reveals that it takes a year just to prepare the ground to receive young trees, and the correct way to prune a cherry tree to get the best harvest. The author also learns how easy it is for any number of things can go wrong and lose a crop.
The essays range from the world of a foreign correspondent to a meditation on the smells associated with a northern Michigan farm; from the odor of light oil used to sharpen tools and lubricate machinery, the stink at the bottom of a silo, the common odor of sour milk, and the all-pervasive scent of wood smoke. Other essays describe his neighbors who get by on subsistence farming, a recollection of Charlevoix in the middle of the last century when there was a strict separation of Jewish and Christian neighborhoods. Strangely enough, many of the Jewish and Christian summer residents were from Chicago where they continually crossed paths while doing business in the Windy City. There's a great chapter on fishing, boating, and lake living in which he recalls the first time a steelhead hit his lure. He writes, "I thought at first that something terrible had happened to the rod, reel, boat, maybe the world."
Eisendrath is a thoroughly engaging author who writes movingly of how the love of place and pleasure of putting down roots is such an important part of a well-lived life. Each of the chapters or essays are small literary gems that bring past and present northern Michigan, it's people and way of life joyously alive.
Downstream from Here: A Big Life in a Small Place by Charles R. Eisendrath. Mission Point Press, 2019, $19.95.
The essays range from the world of a foreign correspondent to a meditation on the smells associated with a northern Michigan farm; from the odor of light oil used to sharpen tools and lubricate machinery, the stink at the bottom of a silo, the common odor of sour milk, and the all-pervasive scent of wood smoke. Other essays describe his neighbors who get by on subsistence farming, a recollection of Charlevoix in the middle of the last century when there was a strict separation of Jewish and Christian neighborhoods. Strangely enough, many of the Jewish and Christian summer residents were from Chicago where they continually crossed paths while doing business in the Windy City. There's a great chapter on fishing, boating, and lake living in which he recalls the first time a steelhead hit his lure. He writes, "I thought at first that something terrible had happened to the rod, reel, boat, maybe the world."
Eisendrath is a thoroughly engaging author who writes movingly of how the love of place and pleasure of putting down roots is such an important part of a well-lived life. Each of the chapters or essays are small literary gems that bring past and present northern Michigan, it's people and way of life joyously alive.
Downstream from Here: A Big Life in a Small Place by Charles R. Eisendrath. Mission Point Press, 2019, $19.95.
Fallback
by B. G. Bradley
Hunter Lake is a small, fictional U.P. village that is filled with singularly engaging characters. The people and the village exist in the imagination of B. G. Bradley and the three books, to date, he has written chronicle critical and life-changing events in the villagers' lives. I have frankly become an addict of the series of which "Fallback" is the third.
Jake O'Brian left Hunter Lake after high school, became a world traveler, lawyer, dealmaker, and an international VIP. Late in middle-age, he married a trophy wife. The man who was always two steps ahead of everybody else, confident, and very self-assured slowly comes apart when his wife becomes pregnant and he is not sure the child is his. His wife adds to his torment by constantly changing her story or mind as to who is the father. Like a wounded animal returning to his den, Jake returns to Hunter Lake hoping to find some solace and support from family and friends, figure out if there is hope for his marriage, and can he love the child if it isn't his. Making things more difficult is the fact that his wife will not tell him whether or not she wants out of the marriage.
B. G. Bradley is not afraid to experiment with narrative styles. Thumbing through his first book with all its narrative kinks and novelties I thought it would be unreadable yet I became completely caught up in the novel. He takes similar chances with narrative style and pacing with this book. Most of the book is composed of very short chapters as Jake tells his story to friends and family and wrestles with what to do. Interspersed with the chapters set in Hunter Lake are brief scenes from a host of different locations ranging from sessions with a therapist to airports, Fiji, and a hunting camp in the U.P. to name a few. At first, the reader doesn't know if all the narrative jumping about is in chronological order or are flashbacks. Ultimately, it doesn't matter because the brief chapters become brushstrokes of a talented portrait artist adding depth and character to his subject.
Once again the author's unorthodox style snares the reader and pulls them into Jake's life and his struggle to decide on a path of his post playboy life. The book is not without surprise twists and turns. As with all Bradley's books on the denizens of Hunter Lake, the heart of this novel helps define home, love, family, and the unexpected turns one's life can take. I am eagerly looking forward to meeting yet another fascinating character from Hunter Lake. Hopefully in the near future.
Fallback by B. G. Bradley. Benegamah Press, 2019, $9.95
B. G. Bradley is not afraid to experiment with narrative styles. Thumbing through his first book with all its narrative kinks and novelties I thought it would be unreadable yet I became completely caught up in the novel. He takes similar chances with narrative style and pacing with this book. Most of the book is composed of very short chapters as Jake tells his story to friends and family and wrestles with what to do. Interspersed with the chapters set in Hunter Lake are brief scenes from a host of different locations ranging from sessions with a therapist to airports, Fiji, and a hunting camp in the U.P. to name a few. At first, the reader doesn't know if all the narrative jumping about is in chronological order or are flashbacks. Ultimately, it doesn't matter because the brief chapters become brushstrokes of a talented portrait artist adding depth and character to his subject.
Once again the author's unorthodox style snares the reader and pulls them into Jake's life and his struggle to decide on a path of his post playboy life. The book is not without surprise twists and turns. As with all Bradley's books on the denizens of Hunter Lake, the heart of this novel helps define home, love, family, and the unexpected turns one's life can take. I am eagerly looking forward to meeting yet another fascinating character from Hunter Lake. Hopefully in the near future.
Fallback by B. G. Bradley. Benegamah Press, 2019, $9.95
The Gray Drake: A Burr Lafayette Mystery
by Charles Cutter
Quinn Shepherd is the best guide on Michigan's legendary trout stream the Au Sable River. After a night of fundraising at a posh trout lodge, Quinn takes his Au Sable boat and floats downriver to his favorite spot and reaches for his fly rod. The next morning he's found at the bottom of the stream with his boat's anchor cable wrapped around his ankle. His death is ruled accidental. He is survived by his wife Lizzie and their six-year-old son. A year later a damaged canoe paddle is found. The police reopen the case and Lizzie is soon charged with the murder of her husband.
Enter Burr Lafayette a lawyer who was recently kicked out of his Detroit law firm and has a lot more liabilities than assets. Frankly, he's in debt up to his eyebrows and endanger of losing the building he is buying to house his new law firm and his sailboat. He is talked into meeting Lizzie, who hardly has two dimes to rub together and reluctantly agrees to defend her. The deck is stacked against Lizzie and Burr goes to trial with no idea as to how he is going to mount a defense and create any doubt in the jury, let alone reasonable doubt.
The author has done a fine job of keeping the reader spellbound as the narrative unspools and Burr continues to grab at straws hoping it will lead to a crack in the prosecution's case. The author has peopled the book with a cast of interesting characters from an incompetent judge to flawed expert witnesses and the singular lawyer Burr Lafayette. The plot features unexpected twists and turns and will keep readers guessing to the end.
The Gray Drake is a dry fly. It is also a species of Mayflies and a famous fishing lodge in which the author has taken some literary license and moved it from the banks of the Manistee River to the Au Sable. The Gray Drake is also a fine mystery, a riveting courtroom drama set in and around Grayling that will hook readers within the first few pages.
The Gray Drake: A Burr Lafayette Mystery by Charles Cutter. Mission Point Press, 2019, $16.95
Any of the books reviewed in this blog may be purchased by clicking your mouse on the book's cover which will take you to amazon where you can usually purchase the book at a discount. By using this blog as a portal to amazon and purchasing any product helps support Michigan in Books.
Any of the books reviewed in this blog may be purchased by clicking your mouse on the book's cover which will take you to amazon where you can usually purchase the book at a discount. By using this blog as a portal to amazon and purchasing any product helps support Michigan in Books.
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