Population: 485
Michael Perry
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2004 HarperCollins/Perennial
ISBN: 0060198524

Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time.

Being a volunteer EMT is no small challenge, even in a small American town. Michael Perry cooks up a stew of tales of heroism & humor, catastrophe & philosophy.

It starts as his team works to rescue a teenage girl from a disastrous car wreck on a notoriously dangerous bend in the road. (We have one outside our own burg which we call Dead Man's Bend). As part of the volunteer fire department, Michael Perry pulls people from mangled cars & answers 911 calls from critically ill or frightened neighbors.

Trees, milk & railroads created New Auburn, Wisconsin until the trains quit stopping there (I remember what happened to Oconomowoc, when the trains chugged on through its lovely little station); a state highway bypassed them; the dairy farmers were bought out by developers & mega-dairies, & the trees grew farther & fewer between. Nonetheless, this hardy community clings on by their roots. It is back to this little settlement in the middle of the lush Midwest land, that Michael Perry loves & has returned to after a decade away. Now he's a firefighter, EMT & budding writer.

Here the local vigilante is a farmer's wife armed with a pistol & a Bible; the most senior member of the volunteer fire department is a cross-eyed butcher with one kidney & two ex-wives (both of whom work at the only gas station in town), & the back roads are haunted by the ghosts of children & farmers.

Michael Perry's mother is a First Responder as too are his brothers & amid the chaos of emergencies this family forges undemonstrative yet sure bonds. Even as this odd-son-out jogs around town & sits up all night writing.

Unable to polka or repair his own pickup, with his farm-boy hands soft from years of writing, Michael Perry figures the best way to regain his niche among his people is to join the volunteer fire department. Against a backdrop of fires & tangled wrecks, bar fights & smelt feeds, he tells frequently comical tales entwined with acute moments of heartbreaking delicacy & searing tragedy.

Population: 485 is an immense read, a bright & enjoyable recounting of stories & memories written with an unerring eye for the flamboyant American character, the absurdities of life, the tragedy of accidental deaths, the valor in rescue, & the compassion of the human heart -- all attributes easily found in small town America.

Very well done!

Check out my interview with this delightful author.
(03/28/04)

Rebecca