Off Main Street; Barnstormers, Prophets & Gatemouth's Gator: Essays

New York: Perennial [An Imprint to HarperCollinsPublishers], 2005. First Perennial Edition [Stated]. First printing [stated]. Trade paperback. Very good. John Shimon and Julie LIndemann (Cover photographs. xii, 284, [4] pages. Autographed copy sticker on front cover. Signed by the author on the About the Author page. Michael Perry (born December 16, 1964) is an American author. After childhood on a small Midwestern dairy farm, Perry put himself through nursing school while working on a ranch in Wyoming, and subsequently worked as a nurse and an emergency medical technician. In addition to writing, Perry maintains a farm, raising chickens and formerly pigs. Perry hosts the nationally syndicated Tent Show Radio, performs as a humorist, and tours with his band, the Long Beds. His memoirs include Population 485, Truck: A Love Story, Coop, and Visiting Tom. His book exploring the work of the French philosopher and essayist Michel de Montaigne, Montaigne in Barn Boots, was published in 2017. He had developed an interest in Montaigne's work while recuperating from a kidney stone, when he did research into his condition and saw references to Montaigne, who also suffered from that malady. Perry's essays and nonfiction have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Backpacker, Outside and Runner's World. He has collaborated with the musician Justin Vernon on several projects and composed the liner notes for the Vernon-produced The Blind Boys of Alabama album I'll Find a Way. Perry has been the subject of three PBS Wisconsin specials: Michael Perry: How Ya Doin' (2019), Michael Perry: Where I Come From (2019), and Michael Perry: On the Road (2023). Whether he's fighting fires, passing a kidney stone, hammering down I-80 in an 18-wheeler, or meditating on the relationship between cowboys and God, Michael Perry draws on his rural roots and footloose past to write from a perspective that merges the local with the global. Ranging across subjects as diverse as lot lizards, Klan wizards, and small-town funerals, Perry's writing in this wise and witty collection of essays balances earthiness with poetry, kinetics with contemplation, and is regularly salted with his unique brand of humor. Derived from a Kirkus review: Thirty-three previously published essays ruminating on the author's childhood and painting word portraits of unique people he's met. Some of the pieces appeared in the two collections Perry self-published before HarperCollins released his memoir of life as a volunteer fireman in his Wisconsin hometown; others appeared in various, generally very-small-circulation periodicals. They deserve wider release: Perry has a real talent for mining quirky humor from even the most mundane situations, and humor isn't his only strength. He may write about Mrs. Oregon's eyebrows looking as if they'd been applied with motor oil, but he also poignantly depicts such memorable figures as Mack Most, a meat-market worker whose six-year-old daughter experiences kidney failure. Perry's description of the grinning slaughterhouse veteran, who has killed untold numbers of animals, leaves a lasting impression, as does his funny tale of dismantling Big Boy, the grinning, chubby-cheeked statue that adorned the front of many a Big Boy restaurant. This little vignette quite naturally leads to a discussion of other outsized restaurant creations, such as the 50-foot-tall Jolly Green Giant in Blue Earth, Minnesota. Meanwhile, lying somewhere in tone between the gritty realism of the story on Mack Most and the shaggy-dog absurdity of the Big Boy piece is a perceptive profile of Aaron Tippin, a country singer obsessed with trucks who has quite an extensive collection of them. Aaron's recollections of how he acquired each truck are warm and funny, and Perry perfectly conveys the singer's character.
A delightful mix of humor and pathos, touching the heart and tickling the funny bone.