SOUTH OF SUPERIOR

I'm from central Minnesota but the Upper Peninsula of Michigan reminds me a lot of Minnesota because of its mining and logging heritage, along with the Ojibwa Indians and the Finnish miners and their descendents who live there. Then of course there's Lake Superior, which we also have in common. The North Shore is some of the most beautiful country in the United States. I also read a book entitled Bloodstoppers and Bearwalkers (think Tony Hillerman's Skinwalkers) about the characters who roam the northern woods of the Upper Peninsula. Believe me, they are some of the most unique people I've ever read about.

Ellen Airgood's SOUTH OF SUPERIOR is about Madeline Stone a young woman who returns to McAllaster, Michigan, to help take care of her great aunt Arubutus who lives with her cranky sister Gladys. She goes to work at a local pizza parlor to help pay her way, where she falls in love with Paul the owner who also works at a nearby prison as a guard to make ends meet. Trouble is, he's in love with another woman. Some would say he really loves Randi's Hopkins' son Greyson.

Madeline also loves the hotel Gladys used to own, which is so run down it would take a fortune to remodel.

Obviously this story is about the characters rather than plot, and there are lots of them. There's Madeline's great uncle Walter, whom she didn't even know was still alive. There are the Bensons who are trying to buy the hotel and turn it into a parking lot. There is Mary Feather, a former cook for the lumberjacks, Emil a nonagenarian who drinks too much but is much loved by almost everyone in town.

Madeline is also a painter; she sneaks up to the attic of the hotel as often as possible to paint the landscape. The hotel soon becomes an obsession.

There's not much plot here, but if you like novels based on characterization you'll love this. Besides, the author looks just like I imagined Madeline would.
Comment |