Engaging author keeps on truckin'
Published: November 5, 2006
About this time four years ago, Michael Perry's new book freshened the air of the nonfiction publishing world the way a November wind perks up the Wisconsin north woods where Perry hunts deer.
"Population: 485 / Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time" was an eclectic blend of anecdotes and observations from a small-town volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician who makes his living from writing and his life from helping others. I was taken with Perry's ability to weave stories of rescue, survival, tragedy and triumph with the larger lessons they teach. I was taken with his Everyman persona, a guy equally at ease with
NPR journalists as with mechanics, barbers and butchers in New Auburn, Wis.
Hard to believe it's been four years since "485." As they say in the chili commercials, "Neighbor, that's too long."
Perry is back with
"Truck: A Love Story" (HarperCollins; $24.95). The author is displaying even more of the native wisdom he showed in 2002.
The confirmed bachelor has also acquired a love interest. Actually two. The book runs on parallel tracks, weaving stories of the restoration of a 1951 International Harvester L-120 pickup and his courtship of a single mother with an adorable daughter.
"Population: 485" was Perry's recollections of life on the responding end of a 911 call. "Truck" is told as it happens, the narrator moving through space on grueling book tours, catching up with his newly beloved then working with a relative to get the truck back in service.
The truck? We've all seen them along the roadside and on farms — abandoned, rusting, tireless or even sans wheels; a wildlife habitat instead of a transit mode.
The girlfriend? While Perry's love life gets going after a long period in idle, he gets the truck going, as well.
International Harvester enthusiasts will devour this book or pick over any aspect of IH lore or arcana Perry might have skipped or gotten wrong. Truck restorations aren't of interest to me, but Perry manages to make them interesting.
More interesting to me is Perry's appeal for the restoration of civil discourse in our deeply divided society. His views and his life literally bridge the wide gap between liberalism and conservatism and feminism and Joe Sixpack.
A 2002 review of "Population: 485" in
The Oklahoman said, "If you read only one nonfiction book this autumn, make it this one. It's that good." Four years later, I'll repeat that first line but change the second to "This one's even better."
— J.E. McReynolds
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