In his book A Porch Sofa
Almanac,
Peter Smith captures life in Minnesota in 60 fun essays that run about 325 words each.
Each essay is a story unto itself and thus the book can be read in short snippets, or can be digested whole in about two hours.
Topics run the gamut from golfing to ice fishing, changes in the meal menu that correspond to changes in weather, splitting wood and meditation on a lawnmower to meditation on a green mini-van. There are tomes about Christmas and Thanksgiving and autumn reading and cooking with Grandma, people watching and the trouble with Green Bay Packer fans and winter wimps.
Along the way, Smith takes his life and shakes it up like a snow globe. Each shake reveals another dizzying—sometimes beautiful, oftentimes humorous—look at his life growing up in the Gopher State.
Smith also writes about his wife and children; Father’s Day versus Mother’s Day; the joys of sending kids off to college and his (laughable)
fear of seeing them move home again due to the poor economy.
My favorite opening sentence is from his chapter titled No-Bleeping-Vember, “There are certain months in Minnesota that, like certain members of every family, are cold, homely, and (let’s admit it) just plain hard to love, November, for example. It’s a succession of thirty days, each one shorter, colder, and grayer than the day before.”
Smith also puts his pen to prose about Hudson Bay blankets, lilac season, the joy in finding a bungee cord, acorns and Toyotas, planting corn and jogging. And more.
Many of these stories are like lumps of sugar stirred into your coffee: short, sweet, the mist rising up like ghostly loons above your cup. Theyare meant to take you on a small journey or give you a brief look at Smith’s mostly suburban life. His writing is simple and poignant and colorful and his observations mostly spot on. It’s a good read.
And when you’re done, if you are like me, it will seem like you’ve made another friend. Or at least discovered another author who you will want to read again.
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