Population: 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time

Perry's book is a cross between memoir, essay and short story. His stories revolve around his move back to his hometown, New Auburn, Wisconsin, when he is 30. He has had a plethora of jobs, a degree in nursing, training as an EMT and as a firefighter. Along the way he has found his calling in writing and is determined to make a living at it. At the time of this book he is writing and volunteering as an EMT/firefighter. He uses the calls as a way to describe how he got to re-enter life in town and got to know the people again. Each chapter or essay has a focal point that he ruminates on, highlighted with tales of the people he serves, the people he works with and his personal and town history, throwing in a little philosophizing; then show more rambling back to his point. All is told with a very human touch, with humor and reality. He shows the starkness of dealing with fires and accidents, as well as the foibles of his characters. I picked this book up because of its title, but I will be looking for more of his work based on his writing. show less

As a native of a small town and frequent reader, I've rarely found any writer that both covers rural issues and is so highly skilled (the Fellowses are skilled, but they are really journalists), so it turns out Perry is the one I'd been seeking. This was one of his earlier titles about his hometown/current home of New Auburn, Wisconsin, and introduces you to the place through the many calls he responds to as a volunteer firefighter.

The narrative is easy to follow but also frankly honest about the place, not skipping over the drug abuse or infidelity if it's relevant to the story, but also covering the skill and camaraderie of his fellow first responders. And while some of the chapters started as individual essays, they have been show more stitched together into a coherent story. show less

Population:485 addresses bravery at the Fire Station in all its glory.

It never extends Michael's Perry's philosophy to alert readers to the obsession he, and his fellow men of Wisconsin's North Country, have with killing animals.

The horrors of "running"deer, coons, and bear - and one cat - receive none of the words
that he wastes on "puke."

Why is murdering animals viewed as a badge of honor rather than simple blood lust?

Later in his life, he enjoys the squeal of his dying pigs.

His easy reading style and philosophy - "You belong to the land first." - may make readers wonder why he didn't listen to the trees as he was lying in the dirt. Here, despite Wisconsin's notorious reputation, he was never bitten by ticks and mosquitoes, nor show more bothered by animals droppings or mice. Hmmm.

Favorite Population includes: Great fire advice to kids, Herbie and his hovercraft,
the Woman with the pistol, and Jack Most's rock!

Wish he had not been afraid to explore deeper into Life... show less

I found this at Savers. Since I'm always looking for books on EMTs for novel research, this book by an EMT/firefighter looked like it might be of use.

This book isn't intense on medical information or trauma cases. At heart, it's a memoir about love for a place--in this case, the small town of New Auburn, Wisconsin. Perry's prose is eloquent as he describes leaving his family's farm to see the world, only to return and live right on Main Street in a town with 485 people and a lot of cows. Along with his mother and several brothers, he joins the volunteer fire department and lives his life by the pager. The geography of the place reflects his experiences--that was the house where the old man had a heart attack, that was the curve where show more the girl ran into a tree.

When I first started reading, I admit, I wasn't too sure about the book. It wasn't what I was going for. But as I read, Perry pulled me in with his understanding of humanity, both the beautiful and the despicably ugly. It's an easy and sometimes humorous read, but a few chapters (the last in particular) really hit me in the gut. He wrote about these small town hard-working people, and I felt like I knew them. It's a very different rural environment than where I grew up in central California (though they have the high cow population in common) but I came to underneath the town of New Auburn as a character itself. show less

https://msarki.tumblr.com/post/160295487663/population-485-meeting-your-neighbor...

My first introduction to Michael Perry’s work was his latest publication, [b:Montaigne in Barn Boots: An Amateur Ambles Through Philosophy|34217513|Montaigne in Barn Boots An Amateur Ambles Through Philosophy|Michael Perry|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1491691011s/34217513.jpg|55268410]. After reading that fine book I decided to go back to the beginning and chronologically read all the full-length memoirs Perry has written. Population: 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time afforded him some well-deserved attention. But honestly, as popular as the book appears to now be, I was expecting much more. From the very beginning I found myself a show more little disappointed. For some reason I was not expecting so much about him being an emergency medical technician and volunteer fireman. But by Chapter 7 Perry had gotten me again with his simple take on community in the chapter My People. He speaks about humility and the assumptions writers sometimes have that they are better than what they are. How that same vanity can cause problems in relationships. But the fire department provided a point of access for him in meeting his neighbors more authentically. He admits, at this point of his writing career, to having written nothing of “considerable reputation.” And when asked at a reading, “What’s the secret to making a living as a writer?” he answers that he discovered the secret years ago while cleaning his father’s calf pens. A childhood spent slinging manure taught him that you just keep shoveling until you’ve got a pile so big, someone has to notice. I really admired his answer, and maybe it applies to all of us if we just keep working hard at piling up our body of work.

By the two-thirds mark I have matured in my thinking and wholeheartedly accept this memoir on its own terms. That of a brother and son, an emergency worker, a fireman, and serviceman to his county and community. Not exactly what I had in mind for the book that got Perry “in” and on the literary map. Thought it would be more about the quirky small town and its people, and it is, just not exactly. This entertaining and educational book is more about service and what that entails. It is the intimacy involved in getting to know death, disease, and destruction on a personal level sooner than most of us who generally carry on until the end comes instead to meet us. Perry confronts death straight on, and almost every day. Or what potentially could result in his own end, but certainly not without the instruction and details that accumulate in order for Perry’s benevolence to grow. It feels endearing to be in his company, and his character being one that will certainly last and predictably thrive through all the fated adversity to come. And this very good book was more than just a touching memoir. It has heart. And life. And hope emanating from a gifted and fascinating personality.

…Captive of my heart and feet, I’m a wandering fool, but I’ve got the sense to keep returning. show less

Michael Perry doesn't write so much as ruminate. Reading a book by him is like sitting at someone's kitchen table and having them tell stories for a couple of hundred pages. Folks who expect a rollicking tale full of Bravery and Humor and Adventure about EMS work and nothing more are going to be disappointed - in between those stories, Perry thinks about love, life, death, birth, the history of his small town, the archaeological value of trash, home (moving away from and how to come back to - and as someone who did the same thing, though I went farther afield, this is a theme that resonates with me), and really, whatever else comes to mind. I loved it.

Perry is one of the better nonfiction writers: his content is actually interesting, his prose is appropriate rather than pretentious, and he moderates his genre-requisite self-reflection with enough entertainment. The essay format seems natural to his style, but the geographic and communal focus of his content provide the right amount of connection for the book to be unified. Some essays do remake the same narrative point with multiple stories, but the extra length was worthwhile in entertainment.