The Lake, the River & the Other Lake: A Novel | 
| Author: Steve Amick
Publisher: Pantheon
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $0.95
You Save: $24.05 (96%)
New (19) Used (48) Collectible (5) from $0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  32 reviews
Sales Rank: 787271
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.5
ISBN: 0375423508
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780375423505
ASIN: 0375423508
Publication Date: May 3, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Crisp & clean pages - VERY pristine!
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Welcome to the resort town of Weneshkeen, nestled along Michigan’s Gold Coast, where the sapphire-blue Lake Meenigeesis and the winding Oh-John-Ninny River lie within spitting distance of Lake Michigan. This once-quaint village–home of the yearly Sumac Days festival; a legendary bootlegger’s mansion; and excellent locally made sausage, cherry pie, and fudge–has become a complex melting pot. There are townies and old-timers who still inhabit the simpler cottages along the shore; ritzy summer folk who’ve bought up the best lakefront and built view-blocking estates; migrant cherry pickers and wily river guides; there are even a few Ojibwe Indians still around.
It is the summer of 2001, and one of these “original people,” Roger Drinkwater, a ’Nam vet and lifelong resident, is plotting extra-legal revenge against the “idiot boy” jet-skiers polluting his beloved lake, even as he’s pursuing Janey Struska, the take-no-guff deputy sheriff. Mean-while, Mark Starkey, a summer kid from downstate, stumbles into a danger-laced romance with the sexiest rich girl in town; the old-guard cherry farmer “Von” vonBushberger struggles with the legacy of his rapidly changing family; and the town’s retired reverend discovers the Internet in the aftermath of his wife’s death and finds a new friend in his computer tutor, Kimmy, a teenager who is having a challenging summer of her own. These lives intertwine in surprising ways as the summer blooms, becoming a season of crises both actual and averted, and of rewarding human connection. Finally, The Lake, the River & the Other Lake is a moving testament to the homegrown Midwestern view that most people, when really pressed, will do the right thing.
Steve Amick himself is a delightful discovery; his big heart and gift for social comedy are everywhere evident in this novel of good people trying to find their way.
Download Description
Steve Amick’s short fiction has appeared in McSweeney’s, The Southern Review, The New England Review, Playboy, Story, the anthology The Sound of Writing, and on National Public Radio. He has an MFA from George Mason University and has been a college instructor, playwright, copywriter, songwriter, and musician. He lives in Michigan, dividing his time between his hometown, Ann Arbor, and a family cottage on a famously clear lake along the northern edge of the Lower Peninsula.
From the Hardcover edition.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 27 more reviews...
 Didn't deliver January 22, 2008
I was thrilled to read a novel devoted to one of my favorite parts of the world, but Steve Amick's debut novel was an extreme disappointment.
The novel starts off promising, with interesting characters in a quirky tourist town, but it soon derails. At the end it completely falls apart.
Amick seems to have taken several separate stories and just stuck them all together. Several of the major story lines have no connection to one another and it seems very disjointed.
When I finished the book, I thought had hallucinated. It just...ends. Several plots are never finished, several mysteries never explained or revisited. I even examined the binding to make sure that pages hadn't been torn out of it.
 Don't waste your time reading this! December 24, 2007
This was our monthly book club recommendation since the person thought it would be comical and similar other literary essays. This was a total waste of my time. If you are into explicit, sexual writing, this is your book. Would be embarrassed to recommend it to others.
Why not just SAY that the map is of Elk Rapids, Michigan? June 6, 2007
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Pros: The introduction of the quirky characters in the first 10 chapters was amusing and well-written.
Cons: I found myself increasingly troubled by all the praise the author is receiving for creating a "fictional" town, when his town is, in fact, a thinly veiled version of Elk Rapids, Michigan. The author's map of his fictional town of Weneshkeen (featured on the cover, no less) is a virtual overlay of the map of Elk Rapids, right down to the names of key streets (US-31, River Street, Bridge Street) and landmarks (water tower, welcome center, Spartan Store, "old hall", high school -- almost everything but the VFW Hall and the characters' houses).
The author then adds a signpost indicating that Weneshkeen is south of Traverse City, when Elk Rapids is north of Traverse City. Why? Is this to throw people off the scent from realizing that he essentially cribbed the entire map of an actual town to use as his "fictional" town?
Granted, this is a character-driven book, not a book driven by the town's layout or names of the streets. (Then again, the very name of the book DOES derive from the natural layout of the town, on a river between two lakes.) Furthermore, I have no problem with the idea of a piece of fiction being based on an actual place or a slightly modified version of such a place -- that happens all the time.
But why not just say as much? In interviews, the author has claimed that Weneshkeen is an amalgam of Charlevoix, Elk Rapids, Leland, and some other small cities of Michigan. Why not just state that it's Elk Rapids, with Charlevoix's VFW Hall and drawbridge thrown in?
Am I overreacting? Perhaps. But in my eyes to author is accepting a little too much credit for creating something that already existed.
 The Lake, the River, and the Other Lake March 29, 2007
As a lifelong Michigan resident, I am pleased with the way Steve's book rings true to northwestern lower Michigan, though the terrain he creates could be drawn from several in-coast lakes along the Lake Michigan coast. As a narrative, it is a "hoot"; the implausibilities are really part of the fun, the politics of the deputy sheriff's position is well-drawn, as is the earthy pathos of the retired minister's discoveries about life. In 36 years of college teaching I could well imagine the aggressive "girl fatale" and the outcome of her story. Nice work by an author from whom we can expect much in the future.
Great read! September 16, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book included great characterizations, quirky twists and turns and a lot of funny scenes. I can't wait for Steve Amick's next book to hit the shelves. Do yourself a favor and get this one!
|
|
|
