Population: 485- Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time (P.S.)

I bought this book on a lark after seeing Justin Vernon (of Bon Iver fame) recommend it to someone on twitter. It's outside of the usual genres I read and I didn't really know what to expect but I found myself amused, touched, enlightened, and constantly surprised at every turn of the page. Michael Perry has a way with words that's intellectual without being academic or high-falutin'. He'll be talking about sitting in his LAY-Z-Boy picking the mud off his boots and suddenly throw out a word you have to look up (I say that as someone with a pretty substantial vocabulary) then draw some parallel to something Edgar Allen Poe once said. He constantly surprises you like that. He's very easy to read though. He's also hilarious. It's usually not even what he says, but how he says it that had me in stitches half the time. It honestly takes a lot for something to make me laugh out loud but I actually had to quit reading this at night when my roommates were trying to sleep because my uproarious laughter woke them up so much. Michael Perry is now one of my top 3 favorite writers. It doesn't matter what he's writing about, it's always entertaining. If you like this book I highly recommend you read his book Truck as well. Before Michael Perry I never would have imagined myself reading a book about someone restoring an old truck, AND loving it so much that I limited myself to only a few pages a day, so it wouldn't end so soon. If you're expecting a book all about being an EMT or how to survive small-town life, it might not meet those expectations, but you will enjoy it anyway. Highly recommend

In my job in emergency management, I work with a number of volunteer fire fighters. As such, I was certain Michael Perry's memoir Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren At A Time was ripe for some good stories.I was not disappointed. Perry's essays about returning to his hometown in Wisconsin and volunteering for the local fire department are excellent and thought-provoking reading.The essays in the beginning are laugh-out-loud funny as Perry makes fun of himself and his hometown in the way only someone who knows and loves it can. The memoir is really about community, as he says "I am becoming fixed on what it means to live deeply in a place, to move about in it, as opposed to pass through it."Drawn together by the sounding of the fire alarm, the people of New Auburn are treated with dignity by first responders and Perry's writing. The funny stories are interspersed with tragedy, just like the calls the fire fighters answer. There are gritty tales of death and the guys who have to clean it up. The final essay was a powerful story of life, death and community. The writing was amazing, strong and descriptive and I used my Kindle dictionary a lot, but it was never pretentious.

At Christmas every year, my book group exchanges books. We each buy one copy for everyone of a selection that we read after the first of the year. This was my choice in December 2010 and we are reading it for our May meeting. I tend to enjoy memoirs and depictions of small town life - anything by Bill Bryson usually makes me happy and "If You Lived Here I'd Know Your Name" by Heather Lende is another favorite of mine. I'm not sure how I ran across this book (probably an Amazon recommendation based upon other books I had liked) but it seemed to be something I would enjoy so took a chance. Not only was I going to read it, I was going to make a group of women read an unknown author to me - crossed my fingers it would be all right. I knew I was in good shape when one of my friends called to tell me she took it on vacation and LOVED it. I just finished it myself a couple of days ago and I have to agree - it was really good.Michael Perry returns to small town Wisconsin after being away for twelve years. Knowing that he needs to find his place in the community after being gone and having worked as a first responder, he decides to join the town's fire and rescue department. This book is one of the results of that decision. A series of essays by Mr. Perry are glimpses of small town life, and all its characters, viewed through the lens of someone who has held injured, ill, and dying neighbors (and some who aren't really in need of services but are lonely and make the emergency call to get some company). The reader rides along with the author as he responds to calls for help and deals with the death and destruction faced by first responders.I was expecting something very humorous and there are moments of laugh-out-loud funny, but it's more poignant than hilarious and more introspective than slapstick. His mother and brothers are part of the squad so family relationships are explored as well as understanding the sense of community felt by people helping others in their time of panic and grief. A truly enjoyable read that inspires me to find his next book, "Truck: A Love Story" to find out how his life continues to unfold. Not for the faint of heart (medical procedures are portrayed accurately), it's still worth the time to read and give the reader a glimpse into a world not inhabited by most of us.

Humble yet profound.