Michigan's "UP" in Literary Fiction

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is remote and sparsely populated. It is surrounded by Lake Superior to the north and Lakes Michigan and Huron to the south. People, most from Finland and Nordic countries, came for the jobs. In the 18th c it was an important sources of lumber and ore, with ships carrying its resources through the 'inland' sea to ports at Chicago and Detroit, Erie and Buffalo. The forests were decimated. There were copper mines, iron mines, and coal mines that created towns. The mines closed. Ford left a 'ghost town', Pequaming, now a tourist town, where once he harvested and processed wood for his cars.

With 3% of the population and a quarter of the land--but one area code-- the UP is its own region with distinctive characteristics, its own dialect, and even cuisine. Yoopers got pastys--meat pies--from Cornish immigrants, and Finnish delicacies can be found. Fishing is not just a hobby.

The UP was and still is a sportsman's paradise, a tourist's destination of great beauty. The same escarpment that creates the Niagara Falls created Tahquamenon Falls and other smaller falls in the UP. Agates lay on the Superior beaches. Lighthouses dot the coast. And now there are casinos.

Terry O'Quinn who played John Locke on Lost is from the UP as was actor James Tolkan.

There is a heritage of UP fiction, small but notable. Classics like Anatomy of a Murder, made into a movie with James Stewart. The author John D. Voelker used the pen name Robert Traver. Voelker retired from a successful law career to fly fish trout and write.

Ernest Hemingway's Nick Adams stories were set in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and ever since anyone writing about the UP has been compared to them.

The Hemingway family came from Chicago north along Lake Michigan to vacation in the various resort communities in Michigan. (Chicagoans still do this.) Hemingway visited Seney in 1919 for a fishing trip. He never returned to the UP. His stories, including The Big Two-Hearted River, have forever associated him with Michigan.

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I decided it was time to read a book by Michigan native Jim Harrison. NetGalley offered his newest novel, The Big Seven, set in the Newberry/Seney/Marqutte area of the UP. The novel's narrator first appeared in Harrison's novel The Great Leader.

The book refers to many Michigan places we have seen on trips Up North: Seney, Newberry, Marquette, Grand Marias.

Told in the first person narrative, we get to know the main character quite well--things I did not really want to know, too. Sunderson retired early from the Michigan State police where he was a detective. He drinks. He is obsessed with female posteriors. And he brought his work home, which contributed to the demise of his 40 year marriage to his ex, Diane, who he still loves.

In The Big Seven we learn about Sunderson's life long obsession with The Seven Deadly Sins, those which can condemn one to hell. He was a kid when he heard a sermon about them, and it has haunted him ever since. He constantly weighs his life, and other's, in terms of The Big Seven. He is sure there is a missing one: violence.

Sunderson and Diane had 'adopted' a neighbor's girl, Mona. Diane contact him because Mona is in trouble, dropping out of college to be a groupie. He tries to scare Mona's beau via blackmail. It didn't work, but he ends up with $10,000. He buys a remote cabin where he can indulge his love of trout fishing.

The cabin is situated in the midst of the Ames family--gun-totting, abusive, incestuous psychopaths. Sunderson intends to steer clear of them, but the Ames housekeeper/cook who comes with the cabin is found dead. Her replacement, another Ames family member named Monica, is a great cook who wants to escape her life. He is also befriended by her uncle, ex-com Lemuel Ames, a wannabe writer of crime fiction whose manuscript reads like a confession of murder. Sunderson finds himself deeply involved.

Meantime, Sunderson is trying to write a book about the eight deadly sin--violence.

I didn't enjoy being in Sunderson's head. His thoughts jump all over the place. He constantly commits several deadly sins, including lechery and gluttony. He is a man who just 'can't say no' when young women throw themselves at him. Plus there is the older neighbor who has set out to catch any many she can. Sunderson is upset by abuse of women and children, is well read, and basically not a horrible person. But reading his wandering thoughts and inner secrets can be in turns repulsive and dull. And yet...we see into a man who is honestly struggling with his own nature. There is also a black humor about things that happen. I realize that Harrison choose to write this book from Sunderson's viewpoint for a reason. The satisfying ending with Sunderson and Diane finding a compromise relationship is quite sweet. One wonders what Sunderson will be thinking about in a third novel.

In a Lansing State Journal interview Harrison said that his publisher was "upset about his next novel--'because it's about evil.'"
http://lansingonlinenews.com/news/msu-grad-jim-harrison-adds-two-books-this-year-to-his-collection/

It has been several days since I finished The Big Seven. I don't know if I will read another Harrison novel any time soon. But I won't soon forget it.

I received a free ebook in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Big Seven
by Jim Harrison
Grove Press
Publication February 3, 2015
ISBN: 9780802123336

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At a local author and book fair I met Royal Oak, MI native Peter Wurdock and purchased his book of short stories Bending Water and Stories Nearby, A Northern Michigan Short Story Collection. The stories are all set in the UP, with Newberry and Marquette often referenced. Illustrations include paintings and drawings.

Most of the stories concern people in crisis, facing dangerous situations, death, grief and the loss of loved ones, or at their lowest point in life. They must come to grips with the fact that in the end "Life'll  kill ya" as one character says. 

One story that deviates into whimsy is "Black Gold". Northern University student cousins on a short vacation before summer jobs at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island are exploring with a metal detector when they find a box with old coins. They realize their grandfather had a cabin in the area and wonder if  he had hidden the box. They ask family members about their grandfather's camp and life. He hobnobbed with Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, The comment "Maybe you found his treasure" and learning of their grandfather's link to the Jewish Mafia and missing slot machines spur them into renting scuba gear to search the lake bottom for 'black gold.'

Bending Water is available through Blue Boundry Book or Amazon.com and can be found at COSTCO stores.
ISBN 978-0-9894214-1-6, $13.99, paperback
$6.99 on Kindle

"Early Days" from 1884

Looking through our library I came across a worn book, Early Days, a children's magazine published in 1884 in London. It was a Victorian Wesleyan Methodist publication mostly written by clergymen. 

In 1884 Christmas involved Christmas trees decked with candles, singing, tales, buying gifts, games, the return of family members who worked elsewhere, and eating--especially a big pudding with a sprig of holy!

"All too soon we have got to the last month of the year. And yet we are glad to see the long, foggy days passing away; glad to know that this month brings the shortest day of the year, and then we may look forward to longer and brighter days. The country is desolate. It almost makes us shiver to see the trees with their naked branches stretched out towards the leaden sky; and as the wind moans around these bare trees, we pull our clothes tighter around us to keep our bodies warm." 

This is not cheerful and light writing for children.

And of course there is a reminder of the real 'why' of Christmas, Christ's Mass.

January 1884 concerns included poor children in the cold, kids making a huge snow man and enjoying a magic lantern show, and a reminder that ships and sailing still were the mainstay of trade and the economy and involved huge risks to sailors.

"And when the stormy winds are blowing and howling round the house, keeping us awake in our beds, we think of the many poor sailor boys tossed about on the wild waves of the sea. Perhaps one of us has a brother or father out on the sea, and we lie awake wondering if he is safe. Poor fellows! It is hard for them to be in a storm, and very terrible when the ship is driven on to the rocks around our coast. How the sea rages around and over them, and tears the ship to pieces. They climb the icy rope ladders, and wait and pray for the life-boat to come to their rescue. And it is coming. Watchful eyes have seen them, and now the brave life-boatmen are 'toiling in rowing' to save those in danger. God speed them!"

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The book belonged to Benjamin F. Cureton, 219 W. Goodale St, Columbus Ohio. A presentation plate shows he received the book in 1885, bequeathed by  James Smith, Esq. of Leebotwood for "early attendance at the Horsehay Wesleyan Sabbath School".

With all that information I had to go to Ancestry.com and do research!

According to his obituary in the Conshocton Tribune, Benjamin F. Cureton had been a physician in private practice for 50 years, passing on Sept. 19, 1966 at age 89. He had been living in Mt. Vernon, OH at the McConnell long term care after an extended illness. Benjamen had a living sister Mrs. P. J. Cummings of Mt. Vernon, OH and a brother George also of Mt. Vernon, OH. Benjamin is buried at Forest Cemetery in Frederickton, OH.

The 1897 Ohio State University yearbooks shows B. F. Cureton was in the Company C "Prize" Company of 1896 under Captain C. E. Haigler. He was a WWI veteran--the first doctor called to Camp Sherman. Captain Cureton was honorably discharged on December 19, 1918. 

The 1940 census showed he had worked in private practice as a physician for 60 hours the previous week, was 62 years of age, and was a single man living as a boarder. 

Benjamin was born January 4, 1877 in Wellington, Shropshire, England. His parents were William and Elizabeth Stephens Cureton. Benjamin was baptized Feb 14 1877 in Dawley-Magna, Shropshire England. 

His father William was born in Dawley Magna in 1849 and in 1872 he married Elizabeth in her hometown of Wellington. In 1887 William and Elizabeth and their sons came to America and lived in Knox, Ohio. William passed away in 1919 and Elizabeth died at age 98 and is buried in Wellington. 

Benjamin had siblings William, Edward, Thomas, George and Samuel.

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The bequest of the book came from James Smith who lived in Shropshire, England. The census of 1851 shows he was a 62 year old brick-maker employing six persons. He was also the Wesleyan local pastor. His wife was born in 1795 and died in 1851. James died in 1853. 

Horsehay was in Dawley. In 1817 there were three brickyards in Dawley and Methodism was flourishing with a Wesleyan Methodist, Primitive Methodist, Methodist New Connection, and Methodist Free churches founded there. 

In 1890 an autographed red and white quilt was created by the Horsehay Methodist Chapel members. It includes the name of James Smith, along with a Samuel and a Charles Smith. Perhaps they were relatives of Pastor Smith.

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As Early Days was a Wesleyan publication it extolled values the Victorians deemed important to growing up. Working hard for a prize was the theme of one story. Barnabe Hooper was not "particularly fond of geography" because he got muddled over the long names. He tried hard but did not win the third-class prize. He felt like a loser and wondered how he was going to face his mother.

When Barnaby sadly told his mother his news he was surprised by her response. "Barny, you seem to think it is all loss for you, but I do not think so at all. When you began the very first day of this term to study your lessons so carefully, there was more than one prize in front of you. You only thought about one, and you have lost that. But never mind, you gave gained others! You have acquired a knowledge of several different subjects, and that is a prize worth having. You have, too, I know, the approval of your master, and what is better still, the satisfaction of knowing that you have tried to do your duty." She also mentions that "our Father in heaven is well pleased with those who earnestly and willingly do the work that comes to the every day." The story closes with a happy Barny--and a reminder for boys and girls to consider the prize which all may win--the glory and honor of eternal life.

The girl says "Oh! I am so thirsty!" Which is of course a parable, with Jesus being the eternal water that quenches thirst.

We will never know if Early Days magazine instilled motivation for Benjamin to work hard to become a physician, to care for patients over 50 years, and to succeed as as a military doctor during war time. Perhaps his childhood pastor James Smith's gift was a cherished reminder of the 'old country'. Did Benjamin volunteer for WWI out of concern for his homeland? How many men's lives were saved by his efforts as a doctor during the war? 

What a wonderful world we live in when a few facts can reveal the history behind a commonplace object or worn book. 

A Year End Review

This is my 182nd blog post in 2014. Yikes. That's pretty good, considering we retired, downsized from two houses to one small one, moved, and have been working hard on our "forever" home. We have a new range, a new tree, a new garage roof, and cellular shades for all the bedrooms. I got a cool retro hutch for my vintage fabric, and a 1958 Saga bedroom set. For Christmas I received a craft table that folds down and has an pad that will make it into a big ironing board.

It has been exciting to see the President Quilts as Sue Reich receives them. She has already had one venue interested in the traveling quilt show. I am so honored to be a part of this project. And so pleased I chose John Quincy Adams. Plus they will be in Sue's forthcoming book on Political and Patriotic Quilts!

This year I reviewed about 50 books, including classics, new fiction, non-fiction, quilt related, children's, and new adult books. I read several more that were not reviewed.

The books I read and blogged about that impacted me the most include:

• Rereading The Great Gatsby: So We Read On by Maureen Corrigan. I did reread The Great Gatsby again.
• War Wounds: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
• John Quincy Adams: The Last Crusade and Portrait of the President as a Young Man
• Nora Webster by Colm Toibin: A Novel About Grief...
• Quilts and Quiltmaking in The Invention of Wings by Susan Monk Kidd
• Acts of God by Ellen Gilchrist
• White Noise Thirty Year Later: Remembering 1984
• Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper. Etta is 83 and decides to walk from Saskatchewan to the Atlantic Ocean. She carried a paper with her name written on it. 

I have also read books with reviews that will not appear until close to their publication in 2015:

• Land of Enchantment by Liza Wieland, a novel about artists and 9-11. Loved this one.
• West of Sunset by Stewart O'Nan, a fictionalized account F. Scott Fitzgerald's final days in Hollywood. Poor Scott.
• Amherst by William Nicholson, about a screen writer researching Austin Dickinson's fifteen year affair with a married woman. 
• Madison's Gift by David O. Stewart, exploring James Madison's career in context of five political and personal relationships.
• How To Be A Heroine by Samantha Ellis, how fictional females impacted her ideals and self-image.
• Abe and Fido by Matthew Algeo, about Abraham Lincoln's relationship to pets and animals.

I am currently reading:

• The Big Seven by Jim Harrison; not my usual fare; about a retired detective whose fishing cabin is surrounded by an unlawful clan. Should violence be the 8th deadly sin?
• Rodin's Lover by Heather Webb, a historical romance about Camille Claudel, the sculptress who studied with Auguste Rodin
• The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Godwin. Nuf said.
• All Points Patchwork by Diane Gilleland showing how to do traditional paper piecing patchwork

On my NetGalley bookshelf to be read soon are:

• The Dream Lover by Elizabeth Berg, a novel about George Sand
• The Children's Crusade by award winner Ann Packer who wrote The Dive from Clausen's Pier
• Behind Every Great Man by Marlene Wagman-Geller about the little known women behind some great men
• The Given World by Marian Palaia about the Vietnam War's effects on a family

I am always surprised to suddenly see a post soar in the number of views. Obviously someone shared the link. The biggest surprise was seeing my most viewed blog post (around 1000 hits) was on the 1954 Sealtest Recipes! My Pride and Prejudice quilt post used to be number one...now it  is number two. I have been selling the patterns for the appliqué and Redwork patterns on Etsy.  "Quilts and Quiltmaking in The Invention of Wings" by Susan Monk Kidd has been on the top posts. "Modish Fifth Avenue Styles for Spring and Summer 1927" has suddenly appeared in the top posts. Anything about handkerchiefs and vintage fabric have also been popular.

My personal favorite blog posts were those that shared information that was new or at least not well known.

• The Bible of John Riley, Indian Chief : A family bible legend reveals the incredible story of early Michigan history
• Operation Hanky: The Uncommon Story Behind a Common Handkerchief: How an American Priest helped Korean women by establishing a cottage industry
• Gruesome Recollection from a Hundred Years Ago: Hog Butchering: was written by my grandfather about his early life on a Pennsylvania farm
• The Shipwreck Coast: "Girl," and a Lamp: more family history about my husband's grandmother's time along the Lake Superior shipwreck coast
• 1928 Presidential Campaign Hanky: my 'circus' elephant hanky from eBay is a political artifact
• Lucy Bloss' Sunbonnet Sue Pyrographic Box: genealogy research behind a flea market find

Quilts I worked on or finished this year included:

• The Gridlock Political Quilt, inspired by Dustin's Giddyup quilt block and incorporating linen towels from 1952 and vintage handkerchiefs
• My embroidered 'Green Heroes" quilt, ecologists, nature writers, park makers and more
• Completed the Charles Dickens quilt top featuring embroidered images from his books
• Creating and sending off my John Quincy Adams quilt to tour with Sue Reich's traveling President Quilts show
• Working on Austen Family Album quilt blocks along with Barbara Brackman's blog
• Working on Love Entwined, a 1796 Marriage Quilt along with Esther Aliu's Yahoo group
• Several small quilts for the quilt guild auction and for family

Laura's Flower Garden: a block made by my mother-in-law turned into a small quilt

My works in progress include:

• I have been researching and sketching for a new Literary Story Book Quilt based on The Great Gatsby. It will be great fun.
• I need to set my original Wizard of Oz embroidered blocks into a quilt.
• I have memory quilt blocks from my father-in-law's shirts to make into a quilt
• I need to pick up Love Entwined again, and finish the last few Austen Family Album blocks
• and deal with a dozen more UFOs lurking in drawers...

Best wishes for a wonderful New Year to you all!

Zelda by Nancy Mitford

Books seem to appear before I even know I wanted them--serendipity in action.

When I was researching John Quincy Adams for my quilt that is part of the Presidents Quilts exhibit to tour in 2017 I stumbled across two JQA books; one amongst a thousand in a thrift shop and the other in a small town library sale.

At the time I was reading  Maureen Corrigan's book And So We Read On about The Great Gatsby--which I then reread. At that same small town library sale I found The Last Tycoon, Fitzgerald's novel in process when he died. I read that. And a few weeks later at a church used book sale I found Zelda by Nancy Mitford, her 1970 biography on Zelda Fitzgerald. And I discovered the NetGalley offering of Stewart O'Nan's novel West of Sunset, a novel about Fitzgerald's last years in Hollywood--That review will appear on January 5, 2015.

I had not planned to read all these F. Scott books. I had read his "Gatsby Girls" stories and The Beautiful and The Damned about the time the Gatsby film came out and thought I was done. But since these books threw themselves at me, I have read them. And am glad I did.

An INTERNET search about Scott and Zelda will bring up everything you want to know about them. They were the 'it' couple of the Flapper age: charming, beautiful, carefree, talented, free spirited, young. And for a while rolling in money.

Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald and F. Scott Fitzgerald 

"Sometimes I don't know whether Zelda and I are real or whether we are characters in one of my novels." F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Named for a gypsy queen in a novel, Zelda was golden haired, athletic, fearless, and undisciplined. She chaffed against the Southern Belle expectations, drinking, and smoking, and "boodling" in cars. She was voted the prettiest in her high school senior class. Then she meet the living image of the Arrow Shirt man: Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald. Scott had the whole package: charm, looks, a Princeton education, and he was already a writer. They had in common great confidence and romantic self-images. Scott seemed worldly to the small town Zelda. He was on his way to financial success and fame. He wanted her along for the ride. And she hopped on the train.

Zelda was Scott's muse. His heroines are versions of Zelda. His stories hearken back to their own stories. Their triumphs and tragedies became fodder for their fiction.

The 1920s high life style caught up with them both. Scott was an alcoholic, and a mean one when drunk. His short stories sold like hot cakes. The lived in the moment. But Zelda wanted something of her own. She thought about an affair. She revived her girlhood dream of becoming a  ballet dancer. She became obsessive about her ballet, and insisted they move to Paris for her studies. They fought. Zelda had a break down and was hospitalized and eventually was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Zelda and Scott never lived together again. He supported her, loved her for their shared past love, but they were unable to live together. Scott was furious when Zelda wrote about her life, using the same "material" he was working with in his book. He encouraged Zelda's painting. Scott fell in love with Sheila Graham and died in Hollywood of heart disease. Zelda died in a horrible fire. People forgot his books.

"They imagined things about themselves, then forgot the thread of the current romance and disintegrated through the fumes of the night in search of the story of their lives." Zelda Fitzgerald in "Caesar's Things"

Until the Armed Services Edition of The Great Gatsby created a buzz among the soldiers of WWII. And the high school and university literature courses took the book up as a good short read. I wrote about that on my post about When Books Went To War by Molly Guptail Manning.

Scott wondered if Zelda were already exhibiting mental instability when he married her. Had he fallen for an insane woman? And if he did, what did that indicate about HIM?

I still have to read Tender is the Night, the book Scott was written while Zelda was showing the early signs of her illness.

Mixing Memory and Desire: Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper

I have read at least 50 books this year. It is a rare occasion at the book's end to find tears swelling in my eyes. Rarely do characters step out from behind the veil and take you traveling with them for some hundred pages so that at the journey's end you mourn the loss of what was shared.

Emma Hooper's Etta and Otto and Russell and James is that kind of book.

When I first saw the book on NetGalley and read it was about an 83 year old woman on a trek across Canada accompanied by a coyote I was not sure I wanted to read about old people.

For one thing as a pastor's wife I have spent my life, starting in my twenties, mostly around old people. And for another thing I am getting old myself. Later I looked at it again. I read the reviews:

Hooper’s spare, evocative prose dips in and out of reality and travels between past and present creating what Etta tells Otto is just a long loop. This is a quietly powerful story whose dreamlike quality lingers long after the last page is turned."– Library Journal (starred review)

"Etta and Otto and Russell and James is incredibly moving, beautifully written and luminous with wisdom. It is a book that restores one's faith in life even as it deepens its mystery. Wonderful!"– Chris Cleave, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of Little Bee

"Hooper’s debut is a novel of memory and longing and desires too long denied…To a Cormac McCarthy--like narrative--sans quotation marks, featuring crisp, concise conversations--Hooper adds magical realism…. The book ends with sheer poetry…A masterful near homage to Pilgrim’s Progress: souls redeemed through struggle. " – Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

This time I requested to read it.

I read it in 24 hours. I did not want to stop reading for meals. Or to go to a family Christmas gathering. Of course, I did stop, but some part of me was always tugging at the leash, eager to resume.

Plot? Here is what you need to know: everything is revealed in its time through the action of the story and the memories of the characters. It is about growing up in Saskatchewan during the dry and destitute years; about young people who dream of another life. It is about old people who fulfill long held desires. There is love and heartbreak, war and death. And, the way it is in old age, we do not always know the present from the past, or the imagined from the real. Scenes are impressionistic, insight is oblique, point of view shifts between persons and time.

Brilliant writing shoots forth from the page in stunning recognition: this is true. Hooper is a musician and the rhythm and lyricism of her language is pitch perfect. I can't wait to see what Emma Hooper pens in the future. If this her first novel is such high literature, of what will she be capable over a career?

Read this book.

I thank NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the e-book in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Etta and Otto and Russell and James
by Emma Hooper
Simon & Schuster
Publication January 20, 2015
$26.00
ISBN: 9781476755670

A Pummychug Christmas

Clawson was originally called Pummychug. Its historical museum is in a 1920 home. The house has enjoyed a long and varied history, including being used as a speak-easy and as a morgue! Now it is outfitted with items from the 1920s and 1930s. It was decorated for Christmas.

 This Christmas tree is made of  feathers.

 All the cats in the house were manikins, like the figures displaying vintage clothing.

 An old radio that ran on a battery, and a pipe stand.

The phone works for incoming calls. As there is no dial...or telephone operator...outgoing calls are problematic.

 A little oven for a little kitchen.

 The ice chest.

 The Hoosier cabinet was stocked with vintage tins.

Including this vintage Sanders tin, Sanders being a local chocolate shop since 1875..

 

 The doll quilt is made of embroidered wool pieces made from men's suiting samples.

 I love the fox spool holder!

 In the late 1970swe lived near the empty Stetson hat factory in Philadelphia.

The medicine cabinet was filled with patent medicines....mostly alcohol and laudanum and other things now outlawed.

 Sweet handkerchiefs!

 A banjo was on the bed in the summer sleeping room.

Water pipes made of wood are still being found in Detroit. Hopefully ours have all been upgraded in the last century...

 The Button Family has button faces on this little bag.

 Please Go Away and Let Me Sleep! says this owl printed souvenir pillow from Petosky, MI

Enjoy An 1860 Christmas

I hope you enjoy these Godey's Lady's Book illustrations from my bound 1860 set. I found it in an old book shop in Maine about 30 years ago.

An 1860s bride in white, a fashion style set by Queen Victoria.