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Summary: For the most part, this is a pleasure to read.
Review: I wish that I could share all of the enthusiasm of the other commentators on this page. While I found 2/3rds of the book to be simply wonderful, I did feel that the final third dragged just a bit--and tended to repeat themes already covered. But even that part is saved by the stunning essay entitled "Sarah." Like many of the other commentators, I, too, grew up in a community very much like New Auburn--although in Massachusetts. We, too, have a volunteer fire department and a chief of police who had a day job. Many of the people in this book are known to you if you ever have lived in such a place. By all means take the time to read this book. I just wanted to add my caution in the midst of all of this rampant enthusiam.
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Summary: Gorgeous Writing!
Review: I read the first chapter of Population 485 in Rosebud magazine a few months back. Immediately, I recognized it as being one of the best pieces of writing I'd ever had the priviledge to read. Before purchasing the book, I noticed that Michael Perry was coming through Denver on his book tour...so I held back from making my purchase, so that I could meet him and get a copy signed.What can I say about this beautiful treasure? Actually, there's quite a bit. I want to quote twice from the book (first from the first chapter, second from the final chapter). These are two of my favorite passages: 1. "She is crying out, and we are doing what we can, but she feels death pressing at her chest. She tells us this, and we deny it, tell her no, no, help is on the way." 2. "Somewhere on I-80, still in Iowa, west-bound, mile marker 13, a little overpass, a blackbird teeters on a wire, flutters against the crosswind, and just as we pass beneath, he allows himself to be swept aloft and I think, these are the moments that fine-tune the spin of the earth." Thematically, Perry writes of the intimacies evident in all relationships between humans. Be that neighborly, romantically, professionally. In the end, we are all willing and able to help those in need because...in the end, we just might need their help when our time comes.
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Summary: Absolutely Fantastic!
Review: I got this book as a gift when I passed my Certified Firefighter I test; read it twice within 2 weeks. Being in a (somewhat larger town) volunteer fire department myself, I could put a face to every character and relate to my own stories with our own members. The last chapter in particular is a great show of the twist that our lives often take at the blink of an eye, the beep of a pager... Population: 485 is not just a book about being a firefighter/EMT; in a far deeper sense it is a tale of self-discovery and finding out just where home really is. Having lived in "the big city" and now being in the process of forming my own hometown experience, Population: 485 really does make one think about what life in a small town really is like. Mike Perry's writing is conversational enough to be a quick, fun read but yet reflective of his truly literary character. I had the good fortune to meet him at a book signing and ended up purchasing another copy for my brother, a veteran firefighter in small-town Northern Wisconsin. The bottom line is that I would HIGHLY recommend this book as a potential American classic.
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Summary: Just a Damn Good Book
Review: Michael Perry's lively descriptive bent shows itself in the very first sentence of "Population: 485": "Summer here comes on like a zaftig hippie chick, jazzed on chlorophyll and flinging fistfuls of butterflies to the sun." Such unexpected similes and metaphors, many of them humorous, appear regularly as the book progresses, and given the author's considerable wit and the colorful characters he brings to life so well, Perry might have settled for a simply humorous book. But he didn't. Instead he delivers a potent, often surprising account of his return after twelve years to the small, northern Wisconsin town of New Auburn (population 485) and of his difficult work as a volunteer fireman and first responder for the local ambulance corps. There is a natural comparison between Perry's hardworking, no-nonsense, salt-of-the-earth townsfolk-One-Eyed Beagle, the butcher; Tricky Jackson; Uncle Shotsy-and Garrison Keillor's stories of Lake Wobegon, but Perry's tales aren't fiction, and given his work in emergency response, they are often tainted with tragedy. The author's sometimes silly anecdotes of small-town life, combined with the pain, loss and grief that he witnesses (and feels himself) on a regular basis, makes for an odd fusion, but Perry pulls it off with considerable dexterity. His voice is steady and sure, and part of the pleasure of "Population: 485" comes from the author's razor-sharp observational skills. He watches closely, listens intently, and reports back with careful precision. On trying to detect a heartbeat in a cardiac patient: "You are hoping to hear audible hydraulics from a fist's-worth of muscle. You are scanning for life's backbeat. The lup-dup groove. A little heavier on the dup." On the weight of his responsibility: "You never know when the call will come. Somewhere out of sight someone is blowing up a balloon, and you will be alerted only when it explodes. There are times late at night, when I'm one of two people on ambulance duty, that I am haunted by a vision of the thousands of hearts beating out there in our assigned patch of darkness . . . [and] the idea that if one of those hearts fails, someone will call for help . . . and out of all those hearts, and all those twisted addresses, we will have to narrow it down, get there as fast as we can . . ." On the terrible situations he must regularly face: "At a small farmhouse deep in the country, a small woman meets us at the door. 'My husband shot himself,' she says. I put my hand on her shoulder, look straight into her eyes, and ask a terrible question. 'Are you sure he is dead?' I am groping for the tone of voice that will allow me to ask this cosmically insulting question and yet convey concern and regret and sympathy and respect, and I am feeling mightily inadequate. I am only asking because it will not do if the coroner arrives to a heartbeat, with us standing around. 'I think so,' she says. 'He is in the granary.'" One additional element that makes this memoir so interesting is that Perry resides concurrently in two disparate cultural realms. He is literate, educated, given to liberal leanings and urban sensibilities. He not only reads Esquire and Salon but occasionally writes for them, as well. Yet he is also part and parcel of the rural, "hick" life he describes with such depth and affection. Perry is not just pretending-not some big-city writer settling briefly into New Auburn for "a season of inspiration." Perry lives in this world, is deeply rooted with friends and family, and his day-to-day witnessing of the region's struggles, misfortunes, calamities and heartbreak clearly draws him in even closer. In short no one else could have written this unique meditation on life and death in small-town America, which makes me all the more thankful that Perry took the time.
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Summary: Reviewer misses the point
Review: The first reviewer on this page, I believe largely missed the point. He or she states that this book lacked a central crisis or theme or pole to wrap itself around. I would argue that the land--New Auburn is the central character that ties every story in this book together, even more than Mike Perry himself does. Perhaps this is because this reviewer has never lived in Northwestern Wisconsin...I recently moved from Eau Claire, WI to Boulder, CO and though the land here is majestic with its rising beautifully snow-topped crests, it pales in comparison to the beauty of Wisconsin. Wisconsin's land tells its own story and we simply interact with it and tells it our stories.
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Summary: A SMALL TOWN PRIMER
Review: This is a memoir and a darned good one. You become part of a small town named New Auburn, WI as Mr. Perry invites you into his world and .... you want to come. He returns to the area of his childhood and expresses his love of the area in many ways. There are many wonderful tales of small town life and touching words by the author. The whole book is very good, but the last 3 chapters are the best: Oops - Penultimate- and Sarah. The last chapter is sad and winds the story up in a satisfying manner.
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Summary: The Way I See The Book
Review: Life the way it is in rual midwest United States. One feels as if they are standing beside Michael Perry as he describes the scene. Ordered a copy for my brother.
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Summary: Small towns are special...
Review: Despite the rather rough appearance of the author in the book's photo of him, don't be deceived -- this man is a poet -- as well as someone with a heart and a wonderful sense of humor. Having grown up in Atlanta, my experience with small towns is limited and only as I've grown older does their appeal reach out to me. Mr. Perry tells stories that made me laugh out loud -- and yes, made me cry a little, too. They are touching, funny, warm -- what else can I say? Read this little treasure -- you'll love it.
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Summary: Buy this book
Review: My husband and I are from a small town in Montana, were on the VFD, and love this book. If you can see Michael in person on his tour, do so. Very funny, and sincere when he says thank you for coming to see me. The book will make you laugh and sometimes sad. Great stories about everyday people. If you are from a small town you will relate to this book. We just kept thinking, "that's sounds like so and so". Michael is a great storyteller in person but did an excellent job in the book also. Hear him in person if you can, buy the book for sure.
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Summary: Highly recommended
Review: The reviews above have covered the content pretty well, but I would like to point out that this book has a far wider range of interest than those who are EMTs or volunteer firefighters (though I certainly see why they would love it.) Perry's perceptions, whether about a dramatic fire or about a small-town Saturday night down at the fish supper, are infused with insight, interesting descriptions, a rare take on people, and wit (at times the "laugh out loud" variety). Perry's writing style is at times a little manic (I don't mean that in a bad way) and his mind seems to be racing, allowing you to be hit with some of the same mile-a-minute perceptions that he's faced with in the interesting town of New Auburn, WI (or "Nobbern," as pronounced by the old-timers.) In short, a tremendously satisfying book.
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