The Lake, the River & the Other Lake: A Novel

Welcome to the resort town of Weneshkeen, nestled along Michigan’s Gold Coast, where the sapphire-blue Lake Meenigeesis and the winding Oh-John-Ninny River lie within spitting distance of Lake Michigan. This once-quaint village–home of the yearly Sumac Days festival; a legendary bootlegger’s mansion; and excellent locally made sausage, cherry pie, and fudge–has become a complex melting pot. There are townies and old-timers who still inhabit the simpler cottages along the shore; ritzy summer folk who’ve bought up the best lakefront and built view-blocking estates; migrant cherry pickers and wily river guides; there are even a few Ojibwe Indians still around.It is the summer of 2001, and one of these “original people,” Roger Drinkwater, a ’Nam vet and lifelong resident, is plotting extra-legal revenge against the “idiot boy” jet-skiers polluting his beloved lake, even as he’s pursuing Janey Struska, the take-no-guff deputy sheriff. Mean-while, Mark Starkey, a summer kid from downstate, stumbles into a danger-laced romance with the sexiest rich girl in town; the old-guard cherry farmer “Von” vonBushberger struggles with the legacy of his rapidly changing family; and the town’s retired reverend discovers the Internet in the aftermath of his wife’s death and finds a new friend in his computer tutor, Kimmy, a teenager who is having a challenging summer of her own. These lives intertwine in surprising ways as the summer blooms, becoming a season of crises both actual and averted, and of rewarding human connection. Finally, The Lake, the River & the Other Lake is a moving testament to the homegrown Midwestern view that most people, when really pressed, will do the right thing.Steve Amick himself is a delightful discovery; his big heart and gift for social comedy are everywhere evident in this novel of good people trying to find their way.