Literary Tourism: Michigan Archives

Station Eleven

by Emily St. John Mandel

A global pandemic, a traveling Shakespeare troupe, a comic book—and a best-of-2014 pick for so many readers. I was afraid this post-apocalyptic novel would be depressing (or terrifying) but it's neither. It IS a pageturner: I read it in two days.

Early Morning Riser

Shortly after moving to Boyne City, MI for her job as an elementary school teacher, Jane meets Duncan and quickly falls for him. A relationship with Duncan means a relationship with the small town, including his ex-wife, her second husband, and every woman Duncan slept with in the past. It can be a lot—and a lot of opinions—to take. Jane wishes she didn’t have to share him quite so much. Over the course of twenty years, we see the ups and downs of marriage, work, and life, as well as the toll of a terrible car crash, as Jane considers what it means to be part of a family and who else it might include.

Middlesex

by Jeffrey Eugenides

From the publisher: "Spanning eight decades--and one unusually awkward adolescence- Jeffrey Eugenides's long-awaited second novel is a grand, utterly original fable of crossed bloodlines, the intricacies of gender, and the deep, untidy promptings of desire." A Pulitzer Prize winner.

The Women of the Copper Country

by Mary Doria Russell

In 1913, Calumet had the largest copper mines in the US, thanks to its ideal shipping location on the shores of Lake Superior. But not everyone benefited from this boom. Annie Clements has witnessed just how much the workers sacrifice for little pay, while the women fear mines collapsing and losing their husbands and fathers forever. She decides to lead a strike, calling for a small pay raise and safer working conditions. Through selfish managers and strike breakers and even a blizzard, through the threat of jail and her husband’s lack of support, Annie proves to the town and herself what’s worth fighting for and what lasting change is possible when workers band together. An insightful, moving portrait of the early 20th century labor movement.

Joy in the Morning

by Betty Smith

Most well-known for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith has written other books worth reading. After Annie meets Carl and falls in love, she decides to move to the Midwestern university where he’s studying law so they can get married. (The setting is widely assumed to be Ann Arbor.) The story follows them over the course of their first year together as they deal with poverty and little community in this new town. It’s ultimately an uplifting account of young love and the ways spouses can care for and support each other.

Anatomy of a Murder

by Robert Traver

This fictionalized account of a Michigan murder trial written by a former District Attorney made an immediate splash when it was published in 1958 and was even turned into a movie. The courtroom drama covers the trial of an Army lieutenant who shot the bartender who raped his wife. Vigilante justice might not be uncommon in the Upper Peninsula but it still flies in the face of the law. Thus DA Paul Biegler takes the case and figures out whether there’s a way around the law to get his client off the hook. Dated in places but still a riveting read.

This Won’t End Well

by Camille Pagán

I've had the pleasure of reading several of Camille's books, and they have a few important things in common: they're all about love, loss, and navigating life's curve balls with humor and style. They go down like light-hearted, escapist reads, but they address issues that matter to us all. They get into heavy territory, but Camille's books are FUN. In her latest, a chemist named Annie who got forced out of the job she loved has her life turned upside down. Her fiancé wants to go find himself—alone—in Paris, her mysterious new neighbor needs her help, and a new friend/detective has her sneaking around minding other people's relationships, while causing her to question her own. I loved watching Annie make her own path and take charge of her life. (Also: THAT COVER.)

Beach Read

by Emily Henry

Don’t be fooled by the cheery cover; I loved this book, but it’s no rom-com. January is a 29-year-old romance writer who no longer believes in happily-ever-after. Demoralized and broke, she moves into the beach house she inherited when her father died, hoping to lick her wounds and finish her current manuscript. But then, in a cruel twist of fate, she discovers her neighbor is the beloved literary fiction writer Augustus Everett, her college rival (and crush), whom she was hoping to never see again. It turns out Gus has troubles of his own, and so the two make a bet to get their writing back on track: January will try her hand at the “bleak literary fiction” that Gus writes, and Gus will write a romance novel. A warm and delightfully meta take on love, writing, and second chances.

Firekeeper’s Daughter

by Angeline Boulley

A powerfully layered YA debut that adroitly balances a thrilling crime plot, a fake relationship, and a thoughtful exploration of identity and belonging. 18-year-old hockey star Daunis dreams of leaving her small community on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and making a fresh start in college. But after she witnesses a terrible crime, Daunis is persuaded to go undercover to nail the dealers whose deadly new drugs are ravaging her Anishinaabe community. While seeking justice for her best friend, Daunis also grapples with burgeoning feelings for her handsome hockey player crush and navigates often-tense relationships within her own family. (While sensitively handled, triggers abound, including murder, suicide, sexual assault, and racism.) Native American narrator Isabella Star LeBlanc’s brilliant performance captures the pulse-pounding first-person narrative drive and the new-to-me Ojibwe phrases and practices in this brilliant YA debut. Narrated by Isabella Star LeBlanc.

What the Fireflies Knew

by Kai Harris

A tender coming of age story that unfolds over the course of a single summer. Our narrator is 10-year-old Kenyatta, whose family is in upheaval. After her father dies from an overdose and the family loses their Detroit home, her mother sends her and her older sister to live with their grandfather in Lansing, for reasons that, though unclear, are plenty scary to young KB. While Nia seems to slip easily into Lansing life, KB struggles to find her place, unsettled by the discovery her world and her family are more complex and frightening than she once believed them to be. A moving exploration of family, identity, and race that piercingly evokes the pains and pleasures of childhood summer days. Harris beautifully voiced her young book-loving protagonist and the many references to Anne of Green Gables were apt and touching. Content warnings apply. For fans of Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing and Gail Godwin’s Grief Cottage.

Tom Lake

by Ann Patchett

This is the novel I didn't know I was longing to read, with its tender familial relationships, Michigan cherry orchard setting, and insider look at summer stock theater. When Lara is nearing sixty and the pandemic is just beginning, her three adult daughters return home for the summer. The girls have long romanticized their mother’s once-upon-a-time romance with a megastar actor, and now, all together again, the girls direct Lara to tell them the whole story from the beginning. She unspools her story slowly, over three long weeks harvesting cherries on the family property. I’m still not sure how I feel about the ending, but this story? Absolutely gorgeous. I can’t wait to read it again. For fans of Rebecca Serle’s One Italian Summer and Anne Enright’s Actress.

Song of Solomon

by Toni Morrison

This coming-of-age family saga has an unforgettable opening scene. The day before Milkman Dead was born, a neighbor leaps off the hospital roof in the mistaken belief that he will fly across Lake Superior. Milkman’s father is a wealthy Black man, the only Black person to own a car in their town and a practitioner of respectability politics. The women in the family, by contrast, are kind and nourishing. Despite their care, Milkman winds up entitled and rootless, culpable to swindlers and the like, as he leaves the rustbelt city in search of his family’s origins. Morrison’s masterpiece is set in an unnamed city in Michigan that is widely believed to be Detroit. Content warnings apply.

The Red Parts: Autobiography of a Trial

by Maggie Nelson

Aimz Rushton brought this true crime memoir to my attention in WSIRN Episode 348: Don’t read widely (right now). Maggie Nelson’s twenty-three- year-old aunt Jane Mixer went missing from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1969. She was found brutally murdered the next day. Her case remained unsolved but she was assumed to be one of the infamous Michigan Murders, attributed to alleged serial killer John Collins. Then a 2004 DNA match uncovered a new suspect for Jane’s murder, just as Nelson was about to publish a poetry book exploring her aunt’s life and death. Here the author details what happened when the murder case was reopened, covering the trial and focusing on the impact on the victims’ families. She also interrogates her own childhood experience of her aunt’s death, from her mom’s concerns over her and her sister’s safety to her own fears about whether a killer was still out there. She also reflects on the cultural fascination with dead white women and the consequences for survivors.

Ursula, Under

by Ingrid Hill

The setting: Michigan's Upper Peninsula, 2003. A two-and-a-half-year-old girl falls into a well, but according to Hill, the story began long before, if we believe “all back story is also story, that the underside of the iceberg explains what we see above.” During the course of the rescue effort, we embark on a wild ride to reveal the underside of the iceberg: the history of young Ursula and her family. We visit China in the 3rd century B.C., 8th century Finland, 17th century Canada and Sweden, and 19th century California, before landing back in Michigan for the rescue effort. A fascinating look at the invisible threads that bind us together, whether we know it or not. At first, this reads like a disjointed collection of short stories, but it comes together.

In Our Time

by Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway released three different editions of this iconic short story collection, which also includes his famous Nick Adams stories. The stories alternate between northern Michigan and WWI and explore grief, separation, and alienation. My first introduction to these stories was in a summer literature program where a professor incited a fiery discussion by asserting a line from "Soldiers Home" was the best ever written in the English language: "Krebs looked at the bacon fat hardening on his plate." I may have other ideas for superlatives, but I've never forgotten In Our Time.

Literary Tourism: Michigan

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