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Gift: A Novel of the Upper Peninsula
Book by Joseph Damrell
144 pages, Perfect Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 12, 2016
Gift
A Novel of the Upper Peninsula by Joseph Damrell takes us to Ontonagon County in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, to places like Ewen and Bruce Crossing where much of the area seems to be backwoods.
Harry lives on his grandparent's Finnish homestead, occasionally with his Uncle Gus, when he's in between his jobs of poaching and trapping. Harry is nearing 40 years old and yet he's still so unsure of himself and life. He's pretty sure he likes Nora, though. He just doesn't know what the pretty social worker would want with him.
When Gus comes home one day and tells Harry to break down his rifle and get it out of the house, Harry knows something more serious has come up. It's not the first time Gus has called upon Harry to help him out. Gus at 81, has always lived by his own rules, 'The Code of the Woods' he calls it. He's not unlike many of the old timers in the U.P. They take what they need to survive. Gus sells his furs, but he's not getting rich on them, he's just taking what he needs to survive.
This puts him in the cross-hairs of the the sheriff and the DNR often enough that a social worker has been checking up on him. Nora comes by routinely to check on Gus and lately has been trying to convince Gus to move to a nursing home. Harry can't see Gus living in a nursing home, but when Gus gets himself into bigger trouble Harry tries to envision Gus in prison. He can't do it.
Harry weaves memories of old times and trying to figure out romance into his thoughts as he tries to help Gus and keep himself out of trouble. Harry has learned a lot from his uncle Gus about work and the woods and the area. He can take an old snowmobile and run it out into a winter night and find his way. It's only a story, but a good one, and I knew right on where Gus would be found, way before Harry realized. This is true blue Yooper thinking.
I wanted to add my favorite paragraph.
"Not that we stood out in the crowd. There were lots of characters, you might say, in the area - families that had aged, lost the parents, with the kids moved away to greener pastures or subdivisions downstate, and just the skeleton crews left to hang around. Old, broken-down farm houses, some of them halfway fixed up, and a lot of new kit homes looking uniformly forlorn and out of place, not to mention the little towns with their sagging dry goods and feed stores, greasy gas stations, senior citizen centers, lonely hotels, on-room banks and libraries and smoky saloons and an occasional cafe serving sloppy joes and meatloaf and, on Fridays - Vatican streamlining of the faith notwithstanding - fish fry."
Harry lives on his grandparent's Finnish homestead, occasionally with his Uncle Gus, when he's in between his jobs of poaching and trapping. Harry is nearing 40 years old and yet he's still so unsure of himself and life. He's pretty sure he likes Nora, though. He just doesn't know what the pretty social worker would want with him.
When Gus comes home one day and tells Harry to break down his rifle and get it out of the house, Harry knows something more serious has come up. It's not the first time Gus has called upon Harry to help him out. Gus at 81, has always lived by his own rules, 'The Code of the Woods' he calls it. He's not unlike many of the old timers in the U.P. They take what they need to survive. Gus sells his furs, but he's not getting rich on them, he's just taking what he needs to survive.
This puts him in the cross-hairs of the the sheriff and the DNR often enough that a social worker has been checking up on him. Nora comes by routinely to check on Gus and lately has been trying to convince Gus to move to a nursing home. Harry can't see Gus living in a nursing home, but when Gus gets himself into bigger trouble Harry tries to envision Gus in prison. He can't do it.
Harry weaves memories of old times and trying to figure out romance into his thoughts as he tries to help Gus and keep himself out of trouble. Harry has learned a lot from his uncle Gus about work and the woods and the area. He can take an old snowmobile and run it out into a winter night and find his way. It's only a story, but a good one, and I knew right on where Gus would be found, way before Harry realized. This is true blue Yooper thinking.
I wanted to add my favorite paragraph.
"Not that we stood out in the crowd. There were lots of characters, you might say, in the area - families that had aged, lost the parents, with the kids moved away to greener pastures or subdivisions downstate, and just the skeleton crews left to hang around. Old, broken-down farm houses, some of them halfway fixed up, and a lot of new kit homes looking uniformly forlorn and out of place, not to mention the little towns with their sagging dry goods and feed stores, greasy gas stations, senior citizen centers, lonely hotels, on-room banks and libraries and smoky saloons and an occasional cafe serving sloppy joes and meatloaf and, on Fridays - Vatican streamlining of the faith notwithstanding - fish fry."
October 24, 2025
Gus marched by the beat of a different drum.
He was a woodsman in the Upper Michigan Peninsula who loved to hunt.
Unfortunately, his livelihood had been labeled as poaching by government authorities.
Gus' nephew Harry agreed to assist him in disappearing.
Does Harry change his mind after he discovered Gus had shot up some joyriding snowmobiles in his hunting lands?
Would the DNR and local law enforcement catch Gus?
He was a woodsman in the Upper Michigan Peninsula who loved to hunt.
Unfortunately, his livelihood had been labeled as poaching by government authorities.
Gus' nephew Harry agreed to assist him in disappearing.
Does Harry change his mind after he discovered Gus had shot up some joyriding snowmobiles in his hunting lands?
Would the DNR and local law enforcement catch Gus?
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews