Tag Archives: michigan

The Outrage of Christ

< THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST by Nikos Kazantzakis was a revelation for a young Catholic boy living on the South Shore of Boston in 1967. I found the book in our town library next to his successful novel ZORBA THE GREEK. The blurb on the dust cover shockingly declared that Kazantzakis had written this […]

THE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH by Peter Nolan Smith

Gloomy clouds over Lake Michigan hovered low in the October sky. A black Suburban sped west on Route 2. The driver hadn’t seen a car since leaving St. Ignace and this late in the year no state troopers patrolled the two-laner traversing the Upper Peninsula. He cruised though Nabinway at 85, then stamped on his […]

The Word Of God According to St. Uvo

“In da beginning dere was nuttin.” Uvo’s accent thickened to a nearly indecipherable patois, “Den on the first day God created da Upper Peninsula. On the second day He created da partridge, da deer, da bear, da fish, and the ducks. On da third day He said “Let dere be Yoopers to roam da Upper […]

UPPER THERE by Peter Nolan Smith

In August of 1987 friends in Michigan extended invitations to visit them in Onekema and the Upper Peninsula. Paulie, Gregg, and I celebrated our departure at the Milk Bar in Lower Manhattan. “Why are you going to Michigan for vacation?” Scottie the owner was a New Yorker. The rest of the country was a blank […]

BEAR MEAT by Peter Nolan Smith

In August of 1987 Pullie Fallen, Grieg Packer, and I left New York City for Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The art professor, literary agent, and I took turns driving Pullie’s F-150 pickup truck through the sweltering heat of the Midwest. None of us broke the speed limit, since Pullie had two unlicensed guns under his seat. […]