When Norah Stoddard tries out for the high school men’s varsity baseball team in 1986, she rocks little Glorious, Wisconsin out of the malaise spawned by the farm crisis. When her alcoholic mother and the latest of Mom’s abusive “boyfriends” drive Norah from her home, Bee Cooney and Reb Early, proprietors of Degan’s Dinky Diner, take Norah in. “The voice of Glorious,” Kenny Kellogg, a cynical radio vagabond, has fallen from the heights, his slide into Glorious slicked by liquor and loneliness. A young woman in town looking for her biological dad, the disgraced ex-editor of the town weekly, and Norah, may just turn his life around along with their own.
As the title implies, this lovely book about folks in the small town of Glorious, Wisconsin is...well... glorious! Cook has a masterful handle on creating real characters filled with kindness and flaws. They, and their lives, ring true. Having been raised and then spending years as a teacher in just such towns in Wisconsin, I can vouch for their veracity. I have known people just like these characters. Cook's story is character driven in the best way. When faced with obstacles such as alcoholism, inequality, meeting a grown daughter one never knew existed, and struggles with faith, the citizens of Glorious battle, compromise, and come through. I am hoping to visit Glorious again one day. Well worth the read!!