The Lake, the River, and the Other Lake

This book kept me interested and I became invested in the lives and fortunes of many of the characters. It is a "slice-of-life" look at a small town and some of it inhabitants. Parts of the story were a bit raunchier than I had anticipated - it is not always folksy and clean-cut, but then neither are real people. The author could swing from social satire to explicit sex to excruciatingly touching moments with ease. There is no overarching plot with a neat beginning, middle, and end, no hero or villain, but rather a peek into a few months in the lives of some fairly ordinary people doing fairly ordinary things.

After reading some online reviews of this book I hesitated to even read it, but one reviewer who compared this author to Richard show more Russo convinced me to give it a try and I'm glad I did. It's a worthwhile read with some memorable folks. show less

I finished re-reading Empire Falls a couple weeks ago but I didn't post a review (the first time I read it was during my pre-blogstoric era) because, really, what else can I say about my favorite author, Richard Russo? Especially when the novel happened to win the Pulitzer Prize? When I pick up a book by Russo, I know I can expect a well-written small-town story.

Russo specializes in the off-kilter regulars down at the bar, the parents trying to raise the next generation right even though the town (and the world) has changed since they themselves were kids, and the few folks in power trying to hang on to whatever authority they can still squeeze out of their tiny borough. Russo does this all without turning his characters into show more "characters." It's not hard to imagine the things he writes about actually happening in a typical small-town day. He gets laughs out of his stories without putting anyone down, finding humor in the everyday absurdities instead of the kooky neighbors.

In his debut novel, Steve Amick seems to follow the Russo recipe for success. The Lake, the River and the Other Lake, which I just finished reading, takes place in a small Michigan harbor town that is quickly becoming a favorite location for the rich to build their summer homes. Since several types - Native Americans whose ancestors first settled the area, townies, rich interlopers, weekend tourists, and even migrant workers up for cherry picking season - occupy the town, Amick has to juggle a lot of stories. To his credit, he hardly ever drops a ball. Each character has such a strong story that only takes the first few sentences of a new chapter to slip into a different storyline. Almost all of the characters are well-developed, making it easy to care about each of their stories - stories that often overlap, as you would expect in a small town.

The only complaint I have about the book is that Amick doesn't always see his stories through to the end. I'm not someone who feels that every storyline has to be neatly wrapped up by the end of a book, but a few of them in the Lake seem to just trail off into the ether. Amick even starts a couple sub-plots that never develop past their introduction, as if they are either the victims of poor editing or the seeds of a future series of books (or a TV show?).

That, however, is the book's only glitch, and a relatively small one considering the large cast of characters. The stories are so good, the people so believable, and the writing so comfortable that I'm willing to overlook some weakly-resolved conclusions, especially if Amick does end up continuing this story. show less

This book was a surprise. From the first chapter I figured this would be light reading, a comedy of errors type of tale, a dozen different people experiencing crisis in their lives. The ending pulls off a happy ending for many of them, but even from those whose downward spiral takes them off the deep end, we learn lessons.
Amick really pictured the joking approach taken by many local Native Americans.

The Lake, the River & the Other Lake by Steve Amuck

At the outset of this novel, set among Michigan’s Gold Coast, you get the feeling that this is going to be just another “Townie” vs. Year round” novel. One with perhaps, some extra quirks along the way. But with a little more reading you find that you are getting so much more. You’re getting petty sabotage, pedophilia, bigotry, inter-net porn addiction, and teenaged extreme sex. Of course you also get a surprise visit with David Letterman and fudge…. a lot of fudge or more precisely “Fudgies” a cute name cooked up to describe the out of town folks and a running gag through out the entire novel. A very, very long running gag.

Thankfully; and against my better judgment I show more forced myself to keep reading this book after slogging through the first half, because I promise you it gets better. Each and every person who has committed some act that is contrary to what we would expect to see in what I had thought was going to be a pleasant light read, gets there comeuppance. Moral lessons are in some very harsh ways, and a few non-traditional happy endings are to be had.

Very dark writing with some clichéd secondary characters meant to be comedic but which seem to fall just a tad flat in my opinion. A generous helping of dark comedy is sprinkled throughout this book and thank goodness for that, or you may want to run screaming into the night. show less

I started reading because it was placed in the area we visited on our family vacation. It was a pretty decent read, but I was a little annoyed at the amount of sex. I believe the sex was part of the story, but probably not at the level it maintained.

Interesting characters and subplots, but I was left with a sour cherry taste in my mouth. I would have preferred a sweeter variety with better movement towards the conclusion.

With all of that, I thought the best story was around the character of Preacher Gene Reacher. Interesting story and development.

Wonderful. Funny and moving. Town of Weneshkeen on Lake Meenigeesis invaded by fudgies every summer. Roger Drinkwater wages war on jet skis

Used my 100-page rule; couldn't finish it. It started out good - lots of "quirky" characters and witty, but it made a turn somewhere and it just didn't go anywhere. I especially didn't like the dark turn it took with one of the characters and his computer.