What do you think?
Rate this book
Fear and Loving in South Minneapolis
A veteran Twin Cities journalist and raconteur summons the life of the city after reporting and recording its stories for more than thirty years
Two or three times a week, as a columnist, hustling freelance writer, and genuinely curious reporter, Jim Walsh would hang out in a coffee shop or a bar, or wander in a club or on a side street, and invariably a story would unfold—one more chapter in the story of Minneapolis, the city that was his home and his beat for more than thirty years. Fear and Loving in South Minneapolis tells that story, collecting the encounters and adventures and lives that make a city hum—and make South Minneapolis what it is.
Here is a man who drives around Minneapolis in a van that sports a neon sign and keeps a running tally of the soldiers killed in Iraq. Here is another, haunted by the woman he fell in love with, and lost, many years ago at the Minnesota Music Café on St. Paul’s East Side. Here are strangers on a cold night on the corner of Forty-sixth and Nicollet, finding comfort in each other’s company in the wake of the shootings in Paris. And here are Walsh’s own memories catching up with the woman who joined him in representing “junior royalty” for the Minneapolis Aquatennial when they were both seven years old; the lost friend, Soul Asylum’s Karl Mueller, recalled while sitting on his memorial bench at Walsh’s go-to refuge, the Rose Gardens near Lake Harriet. These everyday interactions, ordinary people, and quiet moments in Jim Walsh’s writing create an extraordinary picture of a city’s life.
James Joyce famously bragged that if Dublin were ever destroyed, it could be rebuilt in its entirety from his written works. The Minneapolis that Jim Walsh maps is more a matter of heart, of urban life built on human connections, than of streets intersecting and literal it is that lived city, documented in measures large and small, that his book brings so vividly to mind, drafting a blueprint of a community’s soul and inviting a reader into the boundless, enduring experience of Fear and Loving in South Minneapolis.
Two or three times a week, as a columnist, hustling freelance writer, and genuinely curious reporter, Jim Walsh would hang out in a coffee shop or a bar, or wander in a club or on a side street, and invariably a story would unfold—one more chapter in the story of Minneapolis, the city that was his home and his beat for more than thirty years. Fear and Loving in South Minneapolis tells that story, collecting the encounters and adventures and lives that make a city hum—and make South Minneapolis what it is.
Here is a man who drives around Minneapolis in a van that sports a neon sign and keeps a running tally of the soldiers killed in Iraq. Here is another, haunted by the woman he fell in love with, and lost, many years ago at the Minnesota Music Café on St. Paul’s East Side. Here are strangers on a cold night on the corner of Forty-sixth and Nicollet, finding comfort in each other’s company in the wake of the shootings in Paris. And here are Walsh’s own memories catching up with the woman who joined him in representing “junior royalty” for the Minneapolis Aquatennial when they were both seven years old; the lost friend, Soul Asylum’s Karl Mueller, recalled while sitting on his memorial bench at Walsh’s go-to refuge, the Rose Gardens near Lake Harriet. These everyday interactions, ordinary people, and quiet moments in Jim Walsh’s writing create an extraordinary picture of a city’s life.
James Joyce famously bragged that if Dublin were ever destroyed, it could be rebuilt in its entirety from his written works. The Minneapolis that Jim Walsh maps is more a matter of heart, of urban life built on human connections, than of streets intersecting and literal it is that lived city, documented in measures large and small, that his book brings so vividly to mind, drafting a blueprint of a community’s soul and inviting a reader into the boundless, enduring experience of Fear and Loving in South Minneapolis.
184 pages, Paperback
Published December 1, 2020
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 31, 2023
A beautiful love letter to Minneapolis by a native journalist and musician. Loved hearing about all my favorite places I grew up going to and made me appreciate my hometown a lot more
April 21, 2021
Journalist and musician Jim Walsh loves music, Minneapolis, and members of his family – and maybe not always in that order. Over the years, he has written about the people, the places, and the music that he has encountered in the Twin Cities area. Here he offers a collection of 63 of his past columns from local newspapers, dating from 1989 to 2018. Most of the selections come from the last 20 years. They continue the trend -- although a bit more personally, this time -- that Jim set in his previous collection, “Bar-Yarns and Manic-Depressive Mixtapes: Jim Walsh on Music from Minneapolis to the Outer Limits” (2016). In both books, Jim allows us to follow along vicariously in his footsteps and to see what he has seen.
Jim has taken clear advantage of the many cultural and natural resources of the city’s neighborhoods. He’s especially drawn to the thriving eclectic music scene – to both the sites themselves and to the many performers. And if it seems as though he’s deliberately dropping famous names into the mix, it’s only because he’s actually met and talked with these individuals. It may not be to impress us. He’s simply telling what happened.
It can be a risk for writers to reveal themselves in their work. Yet columnists can get personal enough that regular readers begin to feel as though they know the individual. Jim abides by this tradition by not holding much back. We sit in on his moments of introspection and emotion. We learn of the stresses of adoptions and parenthood. We soon know the state of his relationships with his parents and his five siblings, and about their Catholic upbringing. We even get to read the prize-winning speech Jim delivered in ninth grade: which is as relevant in terms of social justice issues now, as it was when he first recited it in 1973. Of course, music abounds, and Jim both listens and participates. But for peace of mind, he returns, always returns, to the shores of Lake Harriet and to the nearby Lyndale Park Rose Garden. Often, with his dog Zero at his side.
About halfway through the book, Jim makes a long drive west to visit his friend Pete at his cabin in western Montana. This trip provides a new set of experiences for him, away from the previously published columns. It also serves to put enough distance between Jim and Minneapolis that he can write about what’s happening at home. But of course, in the end, we know that he must go back there.
If you’re a Twin Cities resident, you’ll “get” it all. But even if you’ve never ventured into the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes, you’ll still find interesting intersections and common ground here: especially if you too were a young person in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Music, culture, and “growing up” connections abound. You may find yourself nodding with recognition at least a few times as you turn these pages. Jim Walsh is an excellent writer and an observer who meets engaging discoveries at almost every turn. Here’s wishing him many more lakeside sunsets and hoping that he lands upon even more stories to share with the rest of us.
NOTE: I have met and chatted with the author, and he gave me a free copy of this book, without any request or obligation to write a review. Thanks, Jim!
Jim has taken clear advantage of the many cultural and natural resources of the city’s neighborhoods. He’s especially drawn to the thriving eclectic music scene – to both the sites themselves and to the many performers. And if it seems as though he’s deliberately dropping famous names into the mix, it’s only because he’s actually met and talked with these individuals. It may not be to impress us. He’s simply telling what happened.
It can be a risk for writers to reveal themselves in their work. Yet columnists can get personal enough that regular readers begin to feel as though they know the individual. Jim abides by this tradition by not holding much back. We sit in on his moments of introspection and emotion. We learn of the stresses of adoptions and parenthood. We soon know the state of his relationships with his parents and his five siblings, and about their Catholic upbringing. We even get to read the prize-winning speech Jim delivered in ninth grade: which is as relevant in terms of social justice issues now, as it was when he first recited it in 1973. Of course, music abounds, and Jim both listens and participates. But for peace of mind, he returns, always returns, to the shores of Lake Harriet and to the nearby Lyndale Park Rose Garden. Often, with his dog Zero at his side.
About halfway through the book, Jim makes a long drive west to visit his friend Pete at his cabin in western Montana. This trip provides a new set of experiences for him, away from the previously published columns. It also serves to put enough distance between Jim and Minneapolis that he can write about what’s happening at home. But of course, in the end, we know that he must go back there.
If you’re a Twin Cities resident, you’ll “get” it all. But even if you’ve never ventured into the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes, you’ll still find interesting intersections and common ground here: especially if you too were a young person in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Music, culture, and “growing up” connections abound. You may find yourself nodding with recognition at least a few times as you turn these pages. Jim Walsh is an excellent writer and an observer who meets engaging discoveries at almost every turn. Here’s wishing him many more lakeside sunsets and hoping that he lands upon even more stories to share with the rest of us.
NOTE: I have met and chatted with the author, and he gave me a free copy of this book, without any request or obligation to write a review. Thanks, Jim!
August 4, 2025
I picked up this book on a sale that the University of Minnesota Press had and chose this book without knowing the author or any of his writing, though he had written for several newspapers and alternative weeklies in the Twin Cities. I have lived in Minneapolis three different times in my life for a total of about eight years, but never felt the full love of the place that Jim Walsh expresses in so many of these columns. He writes with both joy and sadness, and with a great deal of heart about his own life and the people that he interviews for his column, who apart from famous musicians, are ordinary residents of the city. It is a very enjoyable read and I am glad that Jim Walsh was able to share himself so openly with us in this book.
January 10, 2021
This is a wonderful book, a beautiful love letter to Minneapolis from a lifelong resident who eyes his hometown with both reverence and clarity. But perhaps the best thing about the book is what Walsh shares about himself and about the people and places that he loves. We are quickly drawn into his deft recounting of the many fascinating stories that he seeks out, bumps into, and/or intensely lives out himself. Walsh is deeply rooted in his town, with a gumshoe's knowledge of its nooks and crannies, and he generously invites you to join him in gazing with wonder into his world, and into his heart.
June 29, 2021
Great to dive into and read about all the places you know in Minneapolis. Mostly, though, these columns remind you what we have lost with the rise of social media: observant, thoughtful, and reflective journalism.
July 8, 2021
A quick but interesting read of basically his articles from alternative press compiled in a book. Covers a lot of history in south Minneapolis and culture. Definitely worth the read if you’re interested in Minneapolis.
April 13, 2021
A wonderful celebration of community, all kinds of communities! Great read.
Read
February 1, 2022DNF. This book didn't work for me. I found myself reading the short, short autobiographical columns with nothin GF to really show for it by the end. Disjointed. Far too few points.
January 7, 2025
I simply don't know how I feel about this book. We're the same person, but we're not. It's strange.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews