Book Review: Letters From Michiana
Letters From Michiana. David Hoppe, Self-Published, 5 July 2022, Paperback, eBook, 226 pages.
Reviewed by Lisa Lickel.
“A place without stories is apt to become a parking lot,” award-winning journalist David Hoppe says in his new book of essays, Letters From Michiana. Individual observances of a page or two are divided into twelve chapters covering the season across three years, spring 2019 to winter 2022.
Hoppe moved to the southwestern corner of Lake Michigan’s shoreline from California some forty years ago. He’s spent the time since watching the slow shift of population and culture, restaurants, and outlook. For example, in the letter about Indiana Dunes National Park along the southern edge of Lake Michigan, he concludes that the national park isn’t a wild place to “get away from it all” but a last bastion against the crush of progress.
Thoughtful and provocative, Hoppe’s essays find ways to keep an open conversation about our connection to the environment. He explores both local and federal politics fiddling throughout topics of erosion control and sand replacement, regulations, and control in general.
An essay about the state of the roads is a mild complaint hidden inside of a journey away from big-box America to quaint local shops to acquire unique furnishings. It’s nestled with another essay examining the consequences of industrial spillage into the lake. Summertime essays contain stories of big-name music events and farm tourism and the legalities of beachfront ownership. A tale of the lost court battle of private beachfront ownership is underpinned with opinions of wealth and buying new law when the current ones don’t suit.
Hoppe wrote many of the essays during and about COVID-19 when Indiana was operated as “a one-party, Soviet-style state” and “the only debate appear[ed] to be about how quickly everyone [could] get back to ‘normal.’” He had an easy time renewing his driver’s license, however, when the staff was unusually efficient at moving anyone who showed up through the lines. Other pandemic-related topics Hoppe writes about includes no-excuse voting and voting reform (regarding voting by mail, Hoppe comments, “Who doesn’t want this?”) and adapting to a new normal (“Maybe it’s time for us to think afresh about Normal,” he writes in Essay 52’s “Normal” Travel lighter, clean up after yourselves, and enjoy cleaner air from less traffic.)
Ninety-eight essays waxing eloquent about life in general—boredom (is it such a bad thing?) to birds and squirrels and invasive species—are gathered in a lovely volume to be read in mannerly bite-size pieces and discussed at sunset with friends over a glass of wine. Even if you haven’t experienced Michiana, you should. And David Hoppe tells you how. Enjoyable.