The Windward Shore: A Winter On The Great Lakes by Jerry Dennis
One advantage of the cold, miserable weather we've been having in the Great Lakes Region so far this "spring” is that I've had extra time to curl up with a good book. I often spend so much of my time reading guide books and studying maps that I don't get to read for pleasure as often as I'd like. I just completed Jerry Dennis's The Windward Shore and was blown away by his latest ode to the region I call home. I stumbled into Dennis's writing a few years ago when I found The Living Great Lakes on a display bookshelf in Horizon Books in Traverse City. His prose took the reader on a riveting tour of the great lakes complete with a sailing trip on a tall ship through the Erie Canal and across the Gulf of Maine. Dennis also provided us with a lifetime worth of stories centered on the majesty, mystery and power of these great lakes. From tragic shipwrecks to ecological disasters, The Living Great Lakes was a page turner that I tore through in a couple of days!
Needless to say, I was excited to discover Dennis had another book out on a topic that is of such interest to me. On the surface, The Windward Shore is a narrative of a year spent living on the shores of Lakes Michigan and Superior, both in his own home on Old Mission Peninsula and in a variety of borrowed dwellings in magnificent lakeside locations - locations such Cathead Point on the Leelanau and from a rocky vantage point along the coast of the Keweenaw Peninsula. Needless to say, this made me more than a little jealous of the amazing experience it must have been to do the research for this book! Beneath the surface, however, Dennis's book is so much more than a narrative. In addition to exploring the ecological challenges facing the future of the lakes and their surrounding environments, this book attempts to plunge into the minds of the people that live and have lived in these rugged lands, to better understand what drives the day to day life of an often misunderstood region and culture.
Beyond this, The Windward Shore takes a swing at understanding some of the heavy themes that dominate all of our lives - the passing of time, the sense of "place" we gain from spending our lives as part of a land and a people, religion and our attempts to understand a higher power and the idea of nature and the role it plays in shaping our lives. Dennis follows in the footsteps of Emerson and Thoreau and crafts a compelling vision of the world we live in today through a transcendental prism. Reading The Windward Shore most reminded me of the time I have spent studying Thoreau's Walden, but instead of reading about a time and place foreign to me I was examining the world I live in each day.
Dennis closes his book by making a challenge to the reader. "Go forth. Make tracks, throw stones. Assume this is the only life we have. Gather the people you love, and embrace them until your bones crack. Laugh, cry, get pissed off, howl. Stand tall beneath the stars. Sing you heart out. Here is Creation, right before our eyes."
A strong proposition for all of us, and one worth seeking to achieve. The Windward Shore is a must-read for anyone willing to devote a few hours to better understanding the natural world and our place in it, willing to challenge assumptions and confront simple truths. This is a book worthy of your time.
