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

The author certainly has a command of the less frequently-used words in the English language, and, for the first 30% of the book, I enjoyed the tales. However, the overly-flowery prose, the lack of a plot, and the ongoing inner conflict with the author and his roots are interminable.

I felt as if Perry wrote about his surroundings like he was better then them and they should feel blessed with his gracious, educated presence. I am also from Wisconsin, also well educated but I don't go around acting as my presence is a gift to those around me. Shame on you Perry, your not that cool.

Book: Population 485
author: Michael Perry
My review, just posted to Goodreads/the store

<< Well.
This Michael Perry guy just knocks my socks off.
I think I've read all but one of his books now, and each has moved me in a different way.
All are memoir, all are rooted in the tiny (population 485) Wisconsin town from which he sprang, from which he has strayed, and to which he always returns.
He's a philosopher, a poet, a public speaker, an author, a volunteer fire-fighter, a nurse, an EMT, a devoted son and brother...and he comes from a most unusual family, parents devout followers of a pretty rigid holy-roller type of religion from which all their children have strayed, including the 60-odd kids they have fostered over the years.
His brothers and his mother also answer first-responder calls, and he sometimes finds himself in a muddy gully with blood and body parts all around, then realizes that his mother (wearing hair up in a tiny bun, long modest skirt, and steel-toed boots) is working to save a life right beside him.
I'm going to quote a few of the one-liner cover blurbs, because I couldn't possibly say it better...
- Part portrait of a place, part rescue manual, part rumination on life and death, Pop 485 is a beautiful meditation on the things that matter.
- In the best tradition of books that pay quiet homage to community service, place, and the men and women who life there.
- This is a quietly devastating book - intimate and disarming and lovely.
A gold-star read.

This was a fantastic read, although I may be a bit biased since I live in a small village in Wisconsin. Michael Perry is a wonderful storyteller, and his those skills shine in this memoir. Even though this is a small town, I think readers will see many similarities with people in their own neighborhoods, even if you live in a big city. Perry often says that he stays a bit apart from the community, but the way he writes with such depth and emotion about the various people in the town, makes it feel otherwise.

And how he incorporates local history, at just the right moment, is done perfectly. It never feels jarring to go from reading about one of his neighbors, to reading about how the local fire department was formed. For me, sometimes reading about history can be a bit dull, but Perry makes it interesting, adding a touch of humor to lighten it up a bit.

Learning about first responders was another very interesting part to this book. I have never realized that they do so much. Besides being there while the crisis is happening, they also stick around afterwards to clean up the scene. And the fact that they are volunteers, making very little money, and still being on call pretty much 24/7, is amazing. They give so much to their community without asking for anything in return.
Although some of the scenes are graphic, Perry doesn’t write them that way for shock value, and it made me think even more highly of the people who do this, and all they have to deal with.

I highly, highly recommend this book. And if you have the time, encourage you to volunteer as a first responder.

This is a molecular level view of rural Wisconsin, written by a native son, and it will change your own molecules in the reading of it. It is an exploration of life, then mortality ("sometimes I go to the forest and prepare to die"), then life again, and as such, it is something of a comeback story (we collect those). So wide-ranging it is a bit impossible to categorize because the author takes as his subject life and death. Perry is some kind of old soul who is open to experience of every kind, yet he does not ever let it make him bitter, hard or cold, and he never loses the wonder of it all. And his experiences are vast, elemental, and terrifying, for he is a volunteer firefighter and rescue medic. He meets with all of humanity --- hands-on --- at their most vulnerable hour, he truly does see it all, things you and I, dear reader, never see, at least not up close (unless you are in the business of saving lives). And it "all" makes him broader, wiser, more centered, even the tragedies that he must face on a 24-hour call basis. This, alone, is a remarkable accomplishment; that he can convey so compactly, so accurately - all the more so. (He has no TV; that opens up some time.) He is a runner, ex-bodybuilder, cyclist (who ran into a concrete abutment), who can knock them back with his fellow firefighters, yet takes delight in a rural dance theater operated by a pair of flamboyant elders. (In this book, you just don't know what is coming down the road next because Perry doesn't either; the ending will flatten you, but you will recover, as did the author and his subjects.) Most of all, Michael Perry is his own man. There aren't too many like that anymore who aren't self-grafted onto various `ism's,' or drugged by drugs or television, or mislead by any number of things that can take us down the wrong path. An original voice. We will seek out and read other of his titles; what better compliment to a writer than that?

Excerpts

"There are times when rescue is nothing more than organized physical assault. Sometimes I wish we would just leave people be, let them slip quietly over the vale. Sometimes life is not ours to save. Driving east one day, I passed an abandoned farmstead glittering in the winter sun, and thinking of the hands that built the tumbled wooden buildings, I suddenly saw death as a peaceful thing, an opportunity to check out of the game, to dispense with toil and trouble, an inky comfort in the unknown. No more appointments, no more petty recriminations, no phones, no more hurry or worry. Gonna be easy from now on, as the song goes." P 141

"My secret weapon has always been being too dumb to quit...." P 205

"... She had been to town, and was wearing tan slacks and white open-toed sandals. When the cow kicked the third time, Sarah clambered over the manure-caked rail and strode across the cow pen as if she was wearing wellies and overalls. When I left, she and Jed were kneeling side by side at the flank of the Jersey, the milker in place, the milk coursing into the bucket." P 227

I enjoyed Perry's book because it was unique in perspective and writing style and presented a realistic yet charming small town in America that we all are surrounded by. A healthy portion of the book is about being a volunteer fire department person in this tiny Wisconsin town and what that entails. Perry certainly has a great deal of stories to tell, many quite involved so I'll assume these are accumulated over several years. Occasionally my inner skeptic awakened like when he described the "cop o meter", telling the danger of the scene by if there is already a cop down when he arrives. I have one recommendation for Perry also. I have a healthy vocabulary but he uses way too many words that need to be looked up to understand. This bogs down writing and takes away from a story about small town life. I've never met anyone who uses all these words when they talk and I don't believe Perry does either so don't use a 50 cent word when a 25 cent word will do just as nicely. Perry has some great observations on life and the book has both humor and sadness mixed in abundance. This is a nice change of pace to read and contemplate.

Michael Perry returns back to his home town, New Auburn, Wisconsin. A town in Northwestern Wisconsin, Population 485. He left 10 years ago and landed in Wyoming were he worked as a cowboy and put himself through nursing school.

Now he is home, has bought a house on Main Street and is happy to be closer to his mother and brothers. Both his brothers belong to the fire department and his mother is a first responder for the area. Michael decides the best way to reconnect with the community is to join the fire department and use his nursing training to study to become an EMT and his mother joins him in the class.

This is your typical small town, everyone knows everything about everybody, and Michael thinks it's the perfect place to write. Using the emergency calls, grass and chimney fires, accidents and dinners as background for his stories he brings the little town to life on the pages of this book. Humor and tragedy, heartbreak and devastating heartache we meet Michael's neighbors one siren at a time.

I LIKED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had several reasons for wanting to read this book. First, when I started this blog I challenged myself to read books written by Wisconsin authors or that used Wisconsin as the setting for the story. This books meets both those requirements.

Secondly, I am from a small town in Wisconsin, a little bigger than New Auburn, but growing up there was pure joy and at that time, everyone knew everything about everybody. That town has changed and grown and is no longer the town of my memories.

Also while growing up in that small town, my father was a fireman, later the fire chief, and when the fire department was in charge of the ambulance service he was the equivalent of what is now an EMT or First Responder. He even had the Fire Training School at Madison Area Technical College dedicated to him just 2 weeks after he died.

The stories in this book were wonderfully told and brought back so many memories. It prompted a call to my sister who had also read the book some time ago and we spent an hour reminiscing about our dad, who passed away in 1988, some of the stories were so funny, we wish we could write a book. Thank you Michael Perry for writing this book and giving us our Dad back for a few minutes.
Michael Perry has the gift of storytelling and anyone who likes to read about life in a small town, firefighters, EMTs, or anyone who believes in giving back will appreciate and truly enjoy this book. If you would just like to read a good story told by a fresh voice you will like this book.

Note: This book was published in 2002 and new copies of this book may be hard to find but there are plenty used copies available at both [...] and the store.com.

This book was from my private collection. No compensation was received.

Michael Perry is quite clearly a writer - a very good one and well traveled. In what must rank as a rather peculiar career decision, Perry goes home to the small northwestern Wisconsin town in which he was raised to write, live, and work as a volunteer firefighter. Population 485 is a collection of essays more or less responding to these experiences. There is no clear narrative thread and the themes of the essays vary widely. Each, however, explains in a small way why the small town lifestyle is appealing to many and in a large way the debt we owe as a society to our emergency personnel. He covers everything from the initial panic of receiving a call to the grim decision to cease lifesaving efforts, and everything from the disappearance of small town main streets to the camaraderie of the volunteer firefighter picnic - deftly mixing deep thinking with the lowest of brows.

Too often, in my opinion, books that dwell on small towns are either bitter or saccharine - rarely hitting quite the right spot. Michael Perry clearly tends toward the sweet end of the spectrum, focusing on the compassionate characters of his small town, often at their best. He does not, however, write a caricature. Coming from a small town, though my memories are not so halcyonic, I recognize Perry's characters, their desire to do right and their concern for their neighbor. And I recognize the worrisome signs of decay - the indications that our small towns are not long for the world, at least in their current form. Perry has done more good deeds than I can count in his role as an emergency responder, and has done another with his book. Population 485 is fine writing about regular good guys in a place that's fading. Population 485 won't change anyone's life, but it's definitely worth the few hours it takes to read.

A candidate for the best book I've read in 2014. I'm new to Michael Perry's writing and a bit annoyed I hadn't discovered him sooner. This book, a collection of essays and reflections about life in a small northern Wisconsin town as seen through the eyes of writer/volunteer fireman Perry, has charm, wit, laugh out loud humor, touching moments, insights on life and death and love and friendship.

At times (the right times), Perry's prose is simple, direct, clear, and understands the tragedy and loss that small town folks share because everyone knows everyone. At other times, he writes elegant, inspired lines that illuminate and clarify complex thoughts and emotions that we all probably have, but are at a loss to put into the "right words."

I can't recommend this book highly enough.

Michael Perry is a really good writer. He knows how to make you laugh and he knows how to make you cry, and both skills are on display in this well received look into small town America. Perry is a firefighter/first responder/EMT who is on call twenty four hours a day. You get to meet some of his buddies in the fire department, and you will go with as he tends to the needs of hurting people. Sometimes, the people he tries to save make it, sometimes they don't. Through it all, he learns about community, love, life, death, and the search for meaning and significance. The story is bookended by two terrible car accidents, each one ending with the death of a young woman in her early twenties.

I minister in a Wisconsin town even smaller than New Auburn, so I readily connected with the stories and with the people. Some stories will make you laugh (The one about the cross eyed man getting his eyes fixed by having skin from his scrotum applied to his eye was classic. He was cockeyed ever since :)

Some stories will gross you out (the fat woman who pukes all over, on the toilet, in the ambulance and in the hospital). But every story is real and reflects the lives of real people. It's fun read and you will feel like you are a part of the New Auburn community.

I live in a small N.E. town, but no I am not a member of the volunteer FD or an EMT. I do own a scanner (like a good many people in town) and rely on the services of my neighbors who answer their pagers! I feel secure knowing who they are and that they carry pagers. I do breath a sigh of relief when they show at a scene and I can turn a situation over to them.
Perry is an amazing observer and who paints his people, especially himself and his family, and their landscape with a fine hand. The last chapter of the book "Sarah" I found poignant, but not maudelin, and reread several times. Finishingthe book was like finishing a cup of coffee and natter with a good friend.
The layout of the book within each chapter is simply a series of humerous vignettes, or parts of one, alternating with Perry's take on life whether in a small town or in the general scheme.
Unfortunately, I found some of Perry's alternate "takes" and similes a bit too erudite, and at times, the vocabulary, even sophomoric. The writing, in these instances, could have been a bit more "lean and mean."
However, what kept me going through the book was that Perry, in my opinion, gets the "takes" good most of the time. The one on "sense of place" is almost Benedictan in its outlook, while "sleeping in the woods" could be Buddist in its outlook.
While I am not going to rush out and buy several dozen copies of this book to distribute to my firefighter friends, I will look forward to hearing more about and reading more of Michael Perry's writings.

I read the first chapter of Population 485 in Rosebud magazine a few months back. Immediately, I recognized it as being one of the best pieces of writing I'd ever had the priviledge to read. Before purchasing the book, I noticed that Michael Perry was coming through Denver on his book tour...so I held back from making my purchase, so that I could meet him and get a copy signed.
What can I say about this beautiful treasure? Actually, there's quite a bit. I want to quote twice from the book (first from the first chapter, second from the final chapter). These are two of my favorite passages:
1. "She is crying out, and we are doing what we can, but she feels death pressing at her chest. She tells us this, and we deny it, tell her no, no, help is on the way."
2. "Somewhere on I-80, still in Iowa, west-bound, mile marker 13, a little overpass, a blackbird teeters on a wire, flutters against the crosswind, and just as we pass beneath, he allows himself to be swept aloft and I think, these are the moments that fine-tune the spin of the earth."
Thematically, Perry writes of the intimacies evident in all relationships between humans. Be that neighborly, romantically, professionally. In the end, we are all willing and able to help those in need because...in the end, we just might need their help when our time comes.

I bought this book as a Christmas gift for my sister. She is an EMT in Tioga County in the wilderness of Pennsylvania where we both grew up. I thought she would enjoy reading the stories of a fellow small town EMT. Like the author I grew up in a small town then left for the job opportunities and cultural attractions of living in the big city. Unlike the author I have never returned but my sister and our family still live there. The night I purchased the book I skimmed through the pages, was interested and started from the beginning. The stories and narrative said a lot about living in a small town that is slowly dying, and the closeness of a family trying to make a difference. The joy and sorrow of survival and death made the book an emotional experience and I was thoroughly hooked. I stayed up all night and finished the book over breakfast. The ending of the book is especially well done and left me craving for what happened after. I hope the author writes a sequel as I really want to know how his life faired. There is a made for TV movie in here if not a feature. How did my sister like it? She also stayed up all night reading it and it is now circulating through her volunteer fire department in the mountains of Pennsylvania. I bought a copy of my own to read again during a snowy weekend in January.

Population: 485 is starting to take off in volunteer fire and EMS circles. There are two reasons for this. First, it's always great to see a book that glorifies what you do. Second, Perry's experience and way with words allows him to nail many of the details of the work. His passages on emergencies he has dealt with had me nodding my head in recognition, and even sometimes -- as in his section about EMS's obsession with overcomplicated mnemonic devices -- exclaiming my agreement aloud in empty rooms. In these parts of the book, Perry comes closer than any writer I can think of to imparting what it feels like to be an EMT or firefighter in the situations he describes.
However, not all the book is about that. To prove his erudition, Perry salts his book with historical information he cannot make interesting compared to his central subject. These end up looking like he's marking time through this short book because he doesn't have anecdotes enough to fill it. (One of his asides about Emperor Trajan, however, was trenchant.) Also, little redundancies from chapter to chapter reveal how this book was stitched together out of separate articles or essays -- either it should have stayed an essay collection, or the editing should have been done more carefully. And occasionally Perry's "macho poet" stylings can be a bit precious.
All in all, though, Perry's book is worth a look. It is a quick read, and Perry can turn a phrase well. Most importantly, nothing else I have seen captures the feeling of being a small town volunteer like Population: 485. Writing from Population: 633, I salute the book.

Really. The author grafts one of the most gratifying writing styles I've every had the pleasure to read onto his experiences as an ambulance EMT and a fireman in his small Wisconsin home town. This creates a text of wonderful simplicity and beauty. The cover understates the case of the book. This book grows from the conflict between what we think and believe, and how life actually works out in the day to day details and dramas. (Now here's the improbable part: One Sunday morning, as I dragged my laundry up the hill to the laundry mat at 6 am - to miss the crowds - I saw this book lying in the middle of the street. There'd been rain the night before and it was soaking wet. On my way back from the laundry two hours later, it was still there, so I picked it up and scanned the cover. Interesting. I'll take it home, dry it out, and toss it on the pile. I read between 30 and 40 books a year, so it's quite a pile. I put it on the heater to dry it out - probably not the wisest choice - and when I smelled something toasting, took it off and flopped its wrinkly pages open. I started reading and was instantly hooked, by both the style and the raw honesty of the author. Everything else could wait; I had to read this book.)

Perry is masterful in introducing the reader to life in small town America through the residents of New Auburn, Wisconsin and the surrounding area. He is particularly effective at managing that small town paradox where everyone knows everyone, but still allows for privacy. There's much of every character that remains an unknown, and that's part of the allure.

In and around the eccentricity and stark reality of life in a small town, Perry provides some sometimes interesting discussion of the history of fire, firefighting and related topics. Though some are worth reading, Perry sometimes wanders in and out of these discussions, which are treated at great length. A little less focus here, and this would be a perfect read. If you find yourself getting bogged down in these sections, skip ahead and keep reading--they shouldn't distract you from what Perry does best: introducing you to rural America one unique individual at a time.

It might be best to read Perry's Wisconsin books in the order in which he wrote them. This was the first. I read TRUCK: A LOVE STORY first. POPULATION: 485 is wonderfully written and engaging, but has darker moments due to the passages about Perry's volunteer fire department calls. TRUCK is softer and funnier although there are plenty of funny moments in this book, too. I laughed out loud at the scene in which he is using a sewer snake for the first time!

Perry's Wisconsin books are about everyday life, but he never "dumbs down" the vocabulary. He has a musical command of the English language and gives descriptions that make me wish I could see things like he does.

Humor is awfully hard to write. Michael Perry does it very well while simultaneously telling good stories.

A well-written picture of rural America and what it is to be a paramedic/firefighter. The 'action' vignettes are riveting, but the historical tidbits, which some are interesting for the info junkie some are tedious breaks to the action sequences, like the history of firefighting in their tiny town. Some lovely points are made about what it means to help your friends and relatives, bond with them, live with them, and suffer with them at times.

Michael Perry's lively descriptive bent shows itself in the very first sentence of "Population: 485": "Summer here comes on like a zaftig hippie chick, jazzed on chlorophyll and flinging fistfuls of butterflies to the sun." Such unexpected similes and metaphors, many of them humorous, appear regularly as the book progresses, and given the author's considerable wit and the colorful characters he brings to life so well, Perry might have settled for a simply humorous book.
But he didn't. Instead he delivers a potent, often surprising account of his return after twelve years to the small, northern Wisconsin town of New Auburn (population 485) and of his difficult work as a volunteer fireman and first responder for the local ambulance corps. There is a natural comparison between Perry's hardworking, no-nonsense, salt-of-the-earth townsfolk-One-Eyed Beagle, the butcher; Tricky Jackson; Uncle Shotsy-and Garrison Keillor's stories of Lake Wobegon, but Perry's tales aren't fiction, and given his work in emergency response, they are often tainted with tragedy.
The author's sometimes silly anecdotes of small-town life, combined with the pain, loss and grief that he witnesses (and feels himself) on a regular basis, makes for an odd fusion, but Perry pulls it off with considerable dexterity. His voice is steady and sure, and part of the pleasure of "Population: 485" comes from the author's razor-sharp observational skills. He watches closely, listens intently, and reports back with careful precision.
On trying to detect a heartbeat in a cardiac patient: "You are hoping to hear audible hydraulics from a fist's-worth of muscle. You are scanning for life's backbeat. The lup-dup groove. A little heavier on the dup."
On the weight of his responsibility: "You never know when the call will come. Somewhere out of sight someone is blowing up a balloon, and you will be alerted only when it explodes. There are times late at night, when I'm one of two people on ambulance duty, that I am haunted by a vision of the thousands of hearts beating out there in our assigned patch of darkness . . . [and] the idea that if one of those hearts fails, someone will call for help . . . and out of all those hearts, and all those twisted addresses, we will have to narrow it down, get there as fast as we can . . ."
On the terrible situations he must regularly face: "At a small farmhouse deep in the country, a small woman meets us at the door. `My husband shot himself,' she says. I put my hand on her shoulder, look straight into her eyes, and ask a terrible question. `Are you sure he is dead?' I am groping for the tone of voice that will allow me to ask this cosmically insulting question and yet convey concern and regret and sympathy and respect, and I am feeling mightily inadequate. I am only asking because it will not do if the coroner arrives to a heartbeat, with us standing around. `I think so,' she says. `He is in the granary.'"
One additional element that makes this memoir so interesting is that Perry resides concurrently in two disparate cultural realms. He is literate, educated, given to liberal leanings and urban sensibilities. He not only reads Esquire and Salon but occasionally writes for them, as well. Yet he is also part and parcel of the rural, "hick" life he describes with such depth and affection. Perry is not just pretending-not some big-city writer settling briefly into New Auburn for "a season of inspiration." Perry lives in this world, is deeply rooted with friends and family, and his day-to-day witnessing of the region's struggles, misfortunes, calamities and heartbreak clearly draws him in even closer.
In short no one else could have written this unique meditation on life and death in small-town America, which makes me all the more thankful that Perry took the time.

You know that small, faded town you pass through on your way to Somewhere Else? These are the folks who live there. Having grown up in New Auburn, Wisconsin, but moving away to make his way in the world, writer Michael Perry returns home some years later and joins the local fire department as a way of reconnecting with his community. In the book he alternates between relating his experiences as a small-town volunteer firefighter and first-responder and giving fleeting glimpses into the lives and personalities of some of his teammates and fellow residents. The detailed emergency calls were fun to read about, but more than once I made the mistake of reading while having lunch! I generally don't pick up many non-fiction books, but I read this as part of the "Eden Prairie Reads" community program ([...]

Reading this book was like taking a walk down memory lane. I grew up in a small rural community, and was a member of the local voluteer fire department for several years. It was almost scary how much of this book could have been written about my experiences.

Here we get an honest look at what life in a rural community is like. Everyone in town knows everybody else, secrets are hard to keep, and changes come slowly. In this environment, firefighters are taking care of friends and family, rather than strangers, which makes the work all the more rewarding.

Perry's writing is easy to read, and includes a healthy dose of humor that offsets the inevitable tragedy that goes hand-in-hand with being a firefighter. Well done.

Loved everything about this book -- the writing, the thoughtful appreciation of his community and the characters in it, the humor, the tears. Living in a small town myself (even smaller -- about 300!) and having been on our volunteer ambulance service, it all resonated with me. But I so appreciate that Perry took to the time, made the effort, and had such a skillful talent in getting it down just right:) Looking forward to reading more of his work.

Michael Perry's "Population 485" is a wonderful reminisce in the life of a volunteer firefighter and EMT in a small rural Wisconsin town.

The stories are many while performing these vital duties and responsibilities. From the people Perry meets and interfaces with, to the events he witnesses, it's as good as it gets from an insider's viewpoint. Perceptive and insightful.

Several emotions surface while reading the book. Perry is humorous, heartfelt, genuine and pensive. His ponderings on place and space in time reach deep into the realms of being.

Hearing these stories from Perry's spin of writing and viewpoint was a pleasure.

What a treat to find this great new book! This is a memoir by the most interesting character you could imagine. Michael Perry is a poet, a registered nurse, a trained EMT and a volunteer fire fighter. After years away from his small home town in rural Wisconsin, he returns and writes about the things that happen to him there. The result is a funny and often moving account of the things that are really important in life - with insights that can be gained only from a man faced daily with life and death situations. Perry has a beautiful cadence to his storytelling and makes the transition from laugh out loud storytelling to heart-wrenching tragedies seamlessly. I swallowed the book whole and marked up my copy with underlined quotations and margins full of stars of agreement. A definite must-read.

Population: 485 was an interesting novel, and I think that it was a very enjoyable book to read. While reading the book, I felt a connection with Perry as he explains his motives for being a fire fighter, and his feelings towards volunteer work. I think that his book accurately portrays life in a small town, and the work of a volunteer fire fighter, whoes calls range from saving a dying man, or moving a goose to a cooler location. Perry's style of writing was also very interesting. I thought that he used a lot of detail which helped to create a picture in my mind. I think the opening sentence of the novel expresses that idea, "Summer here comes on like a zaftig hippie chick, jazzed on chlorophyll and flinging fistfulls of butterflies to the sun." I thought that Perry was able to mend humor and tragedy very well together for a hearting warming story!

Michael Perry has a great way of explaining and writing the simple things. When I read his books it feels like we are sitting around the kitchen table listening to the day's events. It just happens that Perry is better at getting those stories across than most of us. There were times in this book that I felt he had expanded his story a little far to places I didn't need to go to understand his meaning, but I knew right around the corner there would be something that would have my full attention. I was surprised by the sad ending and loved it.

The cover and description made this book seem like it would be only quirky vignettes about small town red-necks. While it was that to a degree, it was so much more thoughtful, intelligent, exciting, funny, and poignant than that, without being maudlin. Perry faces his characters with respect, without looking down on them for being country folk, as many writers returning to their home towns might be tempted to do. Being from a small town myself (and my stepfather a volunteer firefighter), I could relate to a lot of what he said, but he brought a lot of depth, history, and humor to it all. I teared up several times and laughed aloud several times too. I highly recommend this diamond in the hay...

In many ways this book deserves the highest praise: well written, thought provoking, and in some cases very funny. Yet at times seemed justified for an average rating because it did seem to drag and Mr. Perry chose to wordsmith just a bit too much for me. However, I believe the book can offer every reader something of value and would recommend you take the time to visit Mr. Perry and the town of New Auburn.

It should be pointed out that the book isn't intended for the weak. Perry's story's are graphic and hard hitting and if death bothers you; enter cautiously. From a personal perspectives this made the book for me and the authors ability to make me feel a part of each scenario added to my enjoyment.

I travel on occasion on Route 53 heading North to Duluth.... I plan on stopping to take a look and catch me some food at the local diner. Thanks Michael for sharing your stories.

POPULATION: 485 is a patchwork of stories, history & memories written from the perspective of a native son's return to his home town as a First Responder. Michael Perry writes with an unerring eye for community, nostalgia, tragedy, comedy & self-reflection. Tears & laughter are the spices which make this as welcome a read as a hot toddy on a cold night.
Rebeccasreads highly recommends POPULATION: 485 for anyone who relishes the humor & drama of everyday life in a small American town hanging on to life by the roots of its families.

Michael Perry tells an interesting tale of his little town in the back parts of Wisconsin. I like his writing. It is well organized and he is plain spoken in his manner.

His bits of humor remind me of Bill Bryson a bit. It is a quick read, and if you like to read about small towns and locals, I think you'd appreciate this.

It is just simple observations and stories by an innocent observe and sometime participant

From describing interactions between feuding high school sweethearts in the middle of Main Street to Kodiak-chewing characters that make you say, "I know that guy," the picture of small town living Michael Perry creates for readers is dead on. I couldn't stop reading, laughing, sighing, shaking my head - this book has it all. Because I was raised small town Abrams, Wisconsin, I can honestly say that Perry captures the bittersweet life people live there and, he made me a little homesick. Please read this book!

The following review was written by Steve Wersan for publication in News & Review, a weekly newspaper in Ridgecrest, CA.

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What do you expect from a book whose very first sentence is "Summer here comes on like a zaftig chick, jazzed on chlorophyll and flinging fistfuls of butterflies to the sun."? If you're like me, you'll read on, wondering what this book is really about and if you'll again encounter writing as engaging as that first sentence. You will not be disappointed.

What this book is about becomes clear at page 206 (paperback edition):

"I didn't assume I'd be happy back here. I had been essentially absent for more than a decade, and knew the whole prodigal returned thing was fraught with the potential for disappointment ... I didn't expect to pick up where I left off ... I'd have to ease my way back in ... [and] The fire department has been the indispensable catalyst."

Before you get to this point, you learn that "here" is Perry's birthplace, New Auburn, WI, that his twelve-year absence included summers spent as a ranch hand in Wyoming, graduation from nursing school and training/apprenticing as an EMT and as a firefighter. Perry takes you to fires and on medical emergency calls. There are moments of heroism and painfully recalled goof-ups and the sharply limned portraits of those who accompanied him on these calls.

Back in "Nobburn" he continues his life as firefighter/EMT. His mother and a brother are also members of the volunteer fire department. You are taken on EMT calls (skip if this makes you queasy) and you slide along with Perry in the crawl space of a building that is seriously ablaze. When he isn't doing these things, he is writing (articles and books), going on publisher-sponsored book tours and appearing on NPR.

Among the many personalities described in the book, you won't soon forget Bob, the Cross-eyed Beagle, whose two ex-wives work together in the same convenience store. Beagle, who is actually cross-eyed, gives a howl-out-loud and slap-your-knees explanation of why he is cockeyed. This cannot be printed in a family newspaper.

You learn that Perry is, in mid-forties, still a bachelor and survivor of a long string of almost-got-there relationships. But claiming "I am not a marriage grinch," he launches (p. 221) into a moving, must-read paean to the example of married love set by his parents.

Toward the end of the book we are introduced to Sarah who has been chasing Perry's brother, Jed, since she was sixteen. Now of age, we meet her when Jed brings her to a fire department social affair. The romance flowers and the pair marry. Sarah brings a vegetable garden, sunshine and order into the household of a neglectful bachelor. Seven weeks after the wedding, Sarah is killed in an automobile accident.

Perry writes (p. 234, last page of book): "For my brother, there are dark days ahead. The house [is] suffused with her memory, the most perverse sort of tease ..."

There is a happy resolution to this sadness and to Perry's bachelorhood told in Perry's next book, TRUCK, a love story.

This is a memoir and a darned good one. You become part of a small town named New Auburn, WI as Mr. Perry invites you into his world and .... you want to come. He returns to the area of his childhood and expresses his love of the area in many ways. There are many wonderful tales of small town life and touching words by the author. The whole book is very good, but the last 3 chapters are the best: Oops - Penultimate- and Sarah. The last chapter is sad and winds the story up in a satisfying manner.

Mike Perry's contemporary memoir, Population: 485 - Meeting Your Neighbor's One Siren at a Time, is essential reading for our time. Perry's prose is engaging, vivid and compelling, sophisticated, yet not over-wrought. In addition to the the author's enviably-rendered prose, the subject matter - small town life in rural Wisconsin - as viewed from the perspective of a volunteer fire department paramedic poet - is fascinating. I grew up in a larger Wisconsin city, which has since "gone to seed," to put it politely. The ways in which a changing economy that favors a minority elite and tests the wills of the majority, who struggle - often with astonishingly commendable grace, to carry on, to survive conflagrations both real and figurative, is truly inspiring. Perry's world is ours, in all its seemingly oxymoronic complex simplicity, beauty, humor and sorrow.

I got this book as a gift when I passed my Certified Firefighter I test; read it twice within 2 weeks. Being in a (somewhat larger town) volunteer fire department myself, I could put a face to every character and relate to my own stories with our own members. The last chapter in particular is a great show of the twist that our lives often take at the blink of an eye, the beep of a pager...
Population: 485 is not just a book about being a firefighter/EMT; in a far deeper sense it is a tale of self-discovery and finding out just where home really is. Having lived in "the big city" and now being in the process of forming my own hometown experience, Population: 485 really does make one think about what life in a small town really is like.
Mike Perry's writing is conversational enough to be a quick, fun read but yet reflective of his truly literary character. I had the good fortune to meet him at a book signing and ended up purchasing another copy for my brother, a veteran firefighter in small-town Northern Wisconsin.
The bottom line is that I would HIGHLY recommend this book as a potential American classic.

I lived the first 30 years of my life less than 30 miles from New Auburn, Wisconsin. So when I fortuitously discovered that the author hailed from the same neck of the woods, I promptly purchased the book from the store.

When it comes to reading for pleasure I read at a snail's pace. A John Grisham novel typically takes me several weeks to read. By comparison, I actually read this book at record breaking speed. It was impossible for me to set this book down for long.

There were times when I was nearly rolling on the floor laughing but there were even more times when I literally shed a tear or two. Most books don't engage me emotionally to this depth but then again most books are not written by such an insightful person,

Especially when it comes to matters of human nature and mortality.

And yes, mortality is an issue that this author brings to the fore on many occasions. In fact, if I had to sum up a central reoccurring theme it would be this. We humans are on this planet for a very short time and are balancing on a very thin and precarious wire each and every day that we rise from our beds.

I never felt that the author was an especially cynical person but rather a realistic one who chose to contemplate death as he continued to learn how to help others to live. His choice of an altruistic occupation simply confirms the lesson that many wise persons have learned, that "there is more happiness in giving than in receiving."

This book moves quickly with plenty of realistic and graphic imagery of his experiences in the rescue field interacting with scores of colorful characters. The author is an excellent wordsmith and is incredibly introspective in the matters of the human psyche. I am hooked and intend on reading his other offerings.

Though many who have never lived in small towns view them as coming up short on the diversity measure; I would soundly disagree. Michael Perry captures the depth and the tapestry of relationships fostered in a place where fellow inhabitants know their neighbors on many different levels. And diverse they are!
I enjoyed all aspects of this book, from the philosophical observations on the human condition, to the human- connectedness amid joy and tragedy. More than being just a "people-watcher", Author Michael Perry is a "people-appreciater". His words impeccably paint the personality pictures of those he has known, appreciated, smiled over, laughed with, and or course, sorrowed with. A very recommendable book.

I recently completed Population: 485 and found that it hit very close to home. I grew up in a town smaller that New Auburn, helped with the VFD and then moved away for a while only to recently return. Reading the book reminded me of why I came back.
The characters are the type that are readily noticed in a small town because you are more likely to know everyone. The spirit of community when someone is in need is indeed true. From my own experience, the person that cusses you the louded everyday may very well be the first to offer help when needed. You may not have a lot of common most of the time, but you pull together in the darkest hours.
I would recommend this book for anyone who has ever lived in a small town, ever served in fire/EMS service or ever wanted to do do either.
The stories are compelling. The writing, while fanciful at times is well adapted to the subject. It was a quick read, partially because I couldn't put it down.
All in all a ... good book

The first reviewer on this page, I believe largely missed the point. He or she states that this book lacked a central crisis or theme or pole to wrap itself around. I would argue that the land--New Auburn is the central character that ties every story in this book together, even more than Mike Perry himself does. Perhaps this is because this reviewer has never lived in Northwestern Wisconsin...I recently moved from Eau Claire, WI to Boulder, CO and though the land here is majestic with its rising beautifully snow-topped crests, it pales in comparison to the beauty of Wisconsin. Wisconsin's land tells its own story and we simply interact with it and tells it our stories.

Mike, thank you for a great read and experience!

I laughed, teared, and drifted to similar experiences.

First book in a long while that I kept a dictionary next to me. Well presented stories with just the right balance of harsh reality of rescue and fun, quirky personalities - a well woven journey.

Thanks for putting us in touch with the realities of rural EMS (I've done it, too) and a better appreciation for a wonderful slice of American life.

I'll read it again and again!

Highly recommend this to any volunteer fire/rescue folks to help ground us in common spirit!

Thanks,

Andy

Lyrical, sometimes funny, often meditative observations on small-town life. This book is similar in flavor to Thomas Lynch's The Undertaking. The author's ruminations about his life, past and present, arise out of the emergency calls he responds to as a part his town's volunteer fire department and EMS response unit. While the subject matter may seem depressing, it certainly is much more about life, especially the well lived life, rather than death. Highly recommended.

Michael Perry is an excellent writer/humorist and does a much better job of describing rural life in the Midwest than does Garrison Keillor. I suppose it helps if your the better man too.
Population 485 is small town Wisconsin. Read it, enjoy it, save it and read it again.

MIchael Perry is a good writer. Any reader will feel instantly at home and comfortable reading one of his books. Population 485 accurately describes life in a small town. People know and care for each other. This emotion comes through in Population 485. If you want to feel good about the spirit of America, read this book.

In one short paragraph, Michael Perry can summon the power to make you laugh, cry and think deeply about the human condition. His considerable powers of observation and description bring his town and his people to life - you find yourself looking for their pickups in the lane next to you. And you find them - because his people are your neighbors, your friends and strangers with the sound turned up too loud - you just never looked at them through Perry's volunteer fireman's goggles before. Buy two copies - one to read and one to save for that day, not too far off, when a first edition Michael Perry will be a thing to treasure.

From the little I'd read about this book, I expected some warm, perhaps funny vignettes about life in a rural town. This book is much more! It's laugh-out-loud funny: I read several passages to my family. It also gives an insider's view of the world of volunteer firefighting and EMT/ambulance work. The author uses an impressive range of voices--from "local yokel" to knowledgeable medical professional, essay writer, and lover of poetry. My favorite book of the year so far!

Nice adventure. Reminds me of sitting on a deck listening to a good storyteller-real stories. True to life. Honest. I felt the small town as many seperate tales as opposed to a story about a small town.

might be to real for some- but it portrays a stark reality for those of us who aren't exposed to the many ways life does happen. Enlightening and endearing.

Many beautiful things in life also tend to be the most dangerous. Michael Perry's writing can be placed into this category - beautiful, yet dangerous. His writing rhythm is poetic, his mastery of the English language in tremendous, but his words, they are dangerous. Seriously - dangerous. When I finished his book, I set it down and spent two weeks trying to catch my breath. Michael Perry is that good. I dare you to pick up his book and begin reading it. I double-dog dare you.

The attention to the little details is what makes this book great for those of us in the business. Particularly anyone who has ever run volunteer fire, the chapter in which he describes what the pager going off next to your head in the middle of the night does to your system is priceless and deadon accurate... this book is a must read.

I was really looking forward to a collection of annecdotes about seeing people you see everyday and must know all about you, at their worst. Maybe some insights into how to strike a balance in relationships like that. What I found was quite different.

This book delivers a few good annecdotes. The descriptions about being in the fire and EMS services, specifically relating to a small town, are truly enlightening.

What I didn't enjoy were the constant intellectual conflicts about being a writer (and somone out of place) in such a place. These are often followed by esoteric, English professor-esque discussions. If you want to write something like that, call it Lake Wobbegon Medics or something like that. I can only guess that the book is lengthend by those passages because there are not enough "funny" or interesting stories about EMS that everyone hasn't heard before. Save up the funny small town stories and come out with a better book, or just trim the number of pages down.

I enjoyed Perry's skill as a writer, and maybe I'll check out the book about his truck. Every previous review seems to celebrate this book because it deals with small town fire/EMS or its take on small town life. I urge readers to look past the subject matter when considering this book and consider whether they want to sift through the padding material between the good parts.

Since reading this book, Michael Perry has quickly become one of my favorite authors. His writing style is humorous but at the same time heartfelt and sincere. Population 485 is about Michael's return to his hometown and his adventures on the volunteer fire department. The people in the town are the characters and by the end of the book, you feel as if you've know them yourself.

The author reads the book on CD, which adds the spin the author wants you to hear in each chapter. What a heartwarming book about neighbors & kindness, which isn't seen in our communities often enough these days. We enjoyed you from Mississippi to Tennessee this summer...Thanks!!

What an amazing memoir on something I hold so dear to my heart. Growing up in Wisconsin as the daughter of a volunteer firefighter I was mesmerized by the tales told in Population 485. They seemed so real and true. I felt like I lived with each and every one of the characters. I am looking forward to more by Michael perry and will be checking out past works!

Michael Perry's every page drips with humor, intrigue, and dexterity. He is truly a master of words! His simple country bumpkin way of life stands juxtaposed to his extreme intellect--a beautiful combination that makes his writing style quite unique and thoroughly enjoyable. Even if the story seems at times a monotonous New Auburn history lesson, one should read it for the sheer joy of watching Perry turn a phrase.

Michael Perry's novel is an accessible book that tugs at the heart of its readers. While it looks at the foibles and follies of country folk, it has a universal quality to it. His sensitivity to the human spirit is shown and felt in this delightful piece. Readers will find themselves both laughing and crying at characters who are real because their source and substance are real. Perry is Wisconsin's version of Garrison Keillor and Jon Hassler.

I stumbled across this book while searching for firefighting stories. The author's life mimics much of mine living in a small town, serving on a volunteer fire department where life is full of interesting characters. A great summer read. I also ordered Truck A love story and dug into that immediately after finishing Population 485. I have completely enjoyed both books very much. The author tells a great story.

I am a former resident of the small town in Mike Perry's new book, Population 485. Thinking the book would be a humorous depiction of life in the midwest, I settled down for a light-hearted story. Though there was indeed some laughter, there was also tears and wisdom gained through Mike's insights on the meaning of life. This ranks as one of my favorite books and highly recommend it to everyone. I am now looking forward to his next book!

Read Michael Perry's book for the acuity of his perceptions, the deep beauty of his language and the humor and compassion of his stories. Your intellectual ivy league educated cousin, your Catholic/Agnostic/Homemaker/Neurosurgeon mother, your weird Uncle Lou and your sister will all enjoy this book. For those women who fantasize about the perfect stevedore/poet lover -
take a gander at the dust jacket photo!

I picked-up this book after hearing him on the radio and I thought it was fabulous! His writing style is easy to read, yet not simplistic. I was continually amazed at the humor and clarity he brought to each situation. As a mid-westernern I could relate to the sights and sounds, but anyone can enjoy and appreciate his humor and wisdom. I am so glad to have found this author!

It was an OK read, it does give a good perspective of the Author's small town life and its characters. I think if you were a rural small town person, you might think more highly of it. But it didn't have the power to reel in and captivate this suburbanite.

I am a former resident of the small town in Mike Perry's new book, Population 485. Thinking the book would be a humorous depiction of life in the midwest, I settled down for a light-hearted story. Though there was indeed some laughter, there was also tears and wisdom gained through Mike's insights on the meaning of life. This ranks as one of my favorite books and highly recommend it to everyone. I am now looking forward to his next book!

Read Michael Perry's book for the acuity of his perceptions, the deep beauty of his language and the humor and compassion of his stories. Your intellectual ivy league educated cousin, your Catholic/Agnostic/Homemaker/Neurosurgeon mother, your weird Uncle Lou and your sister will all enjoy this book. For those women who fantasize about the perfect stevedore/poet lover -
take a gander at the dust jacket photo!

I picked-up this book after hearing him on the radio and I thought it was fabulous! His writing style is easy to read, yet not simplistic. I was continually amazed at the humor and clarity he brought to each situation. As a mid-westernern I could relate to the sights and sounds, but anyone can enjoy and appreciate his humor and wisdom. I am so glad to have found this author!

It was an OK read, it does give a good perspective of the Author's small town life and its characters. I think if you were a rural small town person, you might think more highly of it. But it didn't have the power to reel in and captivate this suburbanite.

A really enjoyable book. Perry is an excellent writer--a style that captures you. The book gives a great look into what volunteer firefighters do on an everyday basis, and he throws in some humor as well.

I live in a town of 18,000 in Wisconin and work in healthcare. This is a remarkably well written work from the heart. It is a delight to have found a book that so eloquently captures many of the sentiments that are generated by the privledges and difficulties inherent in caring for ones neighbors. Very touching - without being maudlin.

I was hoping to find some real insight into small town living. What i got was a long winded version of a story that could have been better expressed as a short story.
I recommend reading the last chapter and skipping the rest.