The Land of 10,000 Lakes probably has inspired at least 10,000 writers to boot up their laptops.
Everyone from Louise Erdrich to Garrison Keillor to mystery writer Brian Freeman (who wrote puzzlers set in Duluth) has chronicled the state they love. And, because they know it so well, they imbue their works with a strong sense of Minnesota. Which is why it’s such a great idea to read a Minnesota book exactly where it’s set.
I explored that idea last year in a popular feature, and here are eight more possibilities to double up on your Minnesota reading:
Anywhere With You, Ellie Palmer
Days Like Smoke: A Minnesota Boyhood, Jon Hassler
MN quote: “Our house on South Aldrich in Minneapolis stood a dozen long blocks from the Church of the Incarnation, a handsome Romanesque structure with white marble statuary standing out against the dark brick, but without (it seemed) a basement. Here, in 1930, my parents had been married, and here, on Easter Sunday 1933, I had been baptized.”
MN mentions: About a million. Hassler’s dad worked for Red Owl grocery stores, including one in Plainview, where Hassler spent much of his youth and where he writes that he “acquired the latent qualities necessary to the novelist.” The writer of “Staggerford” and “A Green Journey” talks about the real-life inspiration for his books, reminisces about favorite movies including a misspelled “Pinocchio” and references his mom clerking at Dayton’s department store. “Days” is so packed with Minnesotiana that you could sit down on a park bench almost anywhere in the state and the view would include some place cited in the late author’s memoir. That includes Incarnation (which has a basement, by the way).
A Lesser Light, Peter Geye
MN mentions: Sadly, the incline — the funicular that transported folks between downtown Duluth and the hill above it — is no longer (neither is the saloon that stood at the foot of it). So you can’t read “A Lesser Light” while obsessively going up and down on it. But Superior Street remains and so does that impressive hill. Much of the book takes place in and around a nearby lighthouse, which is not unlike Split Rock.
The Murder Show, Matt Goldman
MN mentions: First off, how dare Goldman not mention the beloved Edina restaurant’s unbelievable malts? The author does name-check the Walker Art Center, cabins on the North Shore and the named-after-presidents-in-the-order-they-served streets in northeast Minneapolis but it’s hard to beat a counter seat, a good book and a coffee/Oreo malt. You can thank me later.
Pike Island, Tony Wirt
MN mentions: The sheriff’s office might not seem like the funnest place to read a book but better to go there voluntarily than involuntarily, right? It is indeed in Faribault, in the new Rice County Public Safety Center, which opened last October. Why not see how your tax dollars were spent? The book notes other places in Rice and Olmsted counties as it toggles back and forth between Minnesota and Washington D.C. By the way, that statute — addressing which law enforcement records are public — is correct.
