Barton Sutter

It's difficult to imagine Duluth, MN, as the latest "best" place to live, and Sutter (My Father's War, LJ 5/15/91) would prefer to keep it to himself. Sutter's lifelong affinity for Duluth and the Arrowhead region of Minnesota permeates this collection of essays. Despite winters at 40 below, ferocious summer insects, and a failing economy, Sutter makes Duluth and its environs sound positively seductive. Sutter's observations are entertaining enough to share with a wider audience. Whether re-creating childhood memories, sharing a creekside walk, or ice-skating on Lake Superior, Sutter takes us along on the gentlest of journeys--he is contentedly at home in a place where "bears wander the streets every fall like country cousins come to town to see the sights."… (mehr)

Outstanding book of short stories revealing and sometimes contrasting the worldviews of the Vietnam generation and the WWII generation. One short story in particular has the Vietnam-protesting sons of a WWII vet finally listening to what their father endured on the island of Bougainville. The sons are amazed and try to sort out their hatred of war with their father's own question, "The only thing I can say is what I thought of then and what I still believe. I can't see how you turn your cheek to Hitler and the Japanese." The author is a master of dialogue and the inner workings of several generational minds.… (mehr)