Off Main Street
Michael Perry
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2005 Harper Perennial
ISBN: 0060755504

Barnstormers, Prophets & Gatemouth's Gator.

As I wrote in my review of Michael Perry's first book of Wisconsin tales: Population 485, his writing covers an immense & bright cast of characters & situations. Off Main Street continues in the same vein, whether he's fighting fires, passing a kidney stone, hitting the road with truck drives, or meditating on the meaning of Elvis he sketches his America with an engaging wit & perspective.

“I am a stranger in a strange town, and the man standing next to me has just removed his pants...” join Michael Perry in his Introduction as he's at a laundromat in Seattle during a book tour. Immerse yourself in his kaleidoscopoc memories of life in these here times.

Visit Around Here: tales close to home about his childhood swimming hole, the Apollo launch for the Moon, & Crazy Joe, a WWII fighter pilot who lived in the woods, cobbled together an airplane powered by a snowmobile engine to fly over the town.

Get with the Gearjammers & travel:
-- in the prow of an 18-wheeler & ponder about how Without Trucks, America Stops as he joins a convoy & muses on how trucks & truckers are depicted in our culture as over-the-top hellions riding "...rhinos on a jailbreak..."
-- on the back of an 85th Anniversary Edition Harley-Davidson as he joins the Vietnam Veterans in their Rolling Thunder to Washington, D.C., to come upon, at midnight, The Wall, & then on to the Pentagon.
-- muse for a while upon the era of the great Greyhoud buses, & the story of the depot man who never left town.

Open Off Main Street & the stories pour forth about the weird & the hardworking, the killers & the musicians (Sara Evans & Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown), junk mail from the KKK & getting sick, told in an all-American way -- from his Wisconsin home town, his book tour, his writing assignments, & his wanderings.

I love Michael Perry's America, & I love the way he tells it like he sees it. This is for anyone who wonders how things came to be, what their lives are like. After you've read a Michael Perry book, you'll never again look out of the window of your auto with that ho-hum attitude... every place, every person you see has a story, & Michael Perry shows you how to tell them.

Off Main Street is very well done, & a great gift for your homesick friends.

Do check out my interview with this delightful author.
(07/31/05)

Rebecca