From the Top: Brief Transmissions from Tent Show Radio by Michael Perry

One Sunday on the way home from Mass, we heard an interview with Michael Perry on the radio. It had to have been on Mississippi Public Broadcasting, because we can't get any other station here, and it was about his book, Visiting Tom, so it must have been in 2012 when that book came out. It was a great interview, and so when I got home I ordered one of his books, Population 485. The reason I chose this one was because it was his first, and the cheapest. I've been buying his books ever since. I am a bit embarrassed to say that I have some of them in paperback, electronic version, and audiobook.

I have looked high and low for the interview we heard, and have not been able to find it. I did, however, find this 2004 interview with Howard Berkes on All Things Considered about Population 485. It's about 10 minutes long, and I think that if you listen to it, you won't find that too long, and that you might want to buy the book immediately.

Perry, author, nurse, paramedic, volunteer fireman, and farmer, was born in the small town of New Auburn, WI (hence Population 485). He grew up on a farm with his parents, his two natural brothers, and a large variety of foster brothers and sisters. His mother (and later his brother) was also a paramedic, and many of the foster children had medical problems, some severe. I think his mother must have been a saint because, heaven knows, a farm wife has enough to do without taking on anything extra. His parents belonged to a fundamentalist church that met in homes. Perry has distanced himself from this, but not in the kind of snarky way that many people do.

My favorite book of Perry's is Truck: A Love Story which is the story of how he restored his 1951 L-120 International Harvester truck and courted his wife. If you read the book, you will learn way more than you could imagined there was to learn about International Harvester, and you will not be as bored as you think you will be. Perry is a master of rabbit trails, and he can make almost anything fascinating. You will also laugh a lot.

But that's not what I am supposed to be writing about.

Part of the reason for the long introduction is that I don't think that From the Top:Brief Transmissions from Tent Show Radio is the best introduction to Perry's work. It just happened to be the only book of his on my shelves that I hadn't read. It was actually the first book I read when I started this project, but I forgot to write about it.

Big Top Chautauqua is a music venue near Lake Superior in Wisconsin. A 900-seat blue-and-white striped canvas tent, it sits on top of a hill and has hosted many musicians whom you would recognize: Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, the Temptations, the Glenn Miller orchestra?, and some whom you would not. It must have been going on a long time, although I'm not sure how long.

They broadcast the shows and Michael Perry is the host of the show. He introduces the performers, and gives a 10 minute talk in between acts. From the Top is a collection of these talks. Some are funny; some are moving; many are drawn from his books. You can hear old broadcasts here.

I enjoyed the book, but I would recommend you read some of the others first. Some are autobiographical; some are collections of essays; and there is at least one novel and one children's novel. I haven't read the children's novel, but I have read The Jesus Cow, and it is all right-ish, but I wouldn't recommend it.

AMDG