Polished Modern Realism American Fiction
John Counts, Bear County, Michigan: Stories (Evanson: TriQuarterly Books: Northwestern University Press, February 2025). Paperback: $24. 232pp. ISBN: 979-0-8101-4801-7.
****
“Following desperate characters in desperate circumstances in the rural Midwest. In these colorful, darkly comic stories, veteran journalist and crime reporter John Counts takes readers to an often-ignored part of the country: a fictional Great Lakes coastal town in northern Michigan defined by beauty and bleakness. The cast of characters in these connected stories ranges from addicts to backwoods misfits to ruined lumber families, all bound together by their desire to obtain something just out of reach. Big Frank breaks out of a rehab facility trying to outrun grief. The women in the village of Brotherhood grapple with sterility resulting from an environmental calamity. A local politician must convince her mother to leave a nudist colony. And in the final, sweeping story, a splinter group from the local tribe attempts to reclaim its ancestral land by force. The people of Bear County and their predicaments encompass the wildly original and yet totally ordinary truths about American life off the beaten track.”
This collection reminds me of The Peasants in its setup: stories about a bunch of interesting mostly poor people in a single fictional town. This is a good approach. There is usually only a short story or a collection of fragments of information to succinctly report a fictional biography. When a biography is stretched across an entire novel it tends to be diluted with empty dialogue, instead of concrete facts about what happens to this character daily, or hourly.
The opening story, “Big Frank”, is about a “three-hundred-plus pounds” man who escapes from jail, or a drug-facility that is kept like a jail. He only has three weeks left on his mandatory stay. There is clear exposition about who Frank is, who his girlfriend is, and their tensions, as well as a third who is interrupting their relationship. There is some lack of clear narrative-purpose. Other than wanting to use drugs, it is unclear why Frank is escaping, or what he is trying to achieve. The first clear conflict is when Frank stumbles into somebody else’s house, and starts exploring it: setting up a tension about him potentially being discovered by the hunters who inhabit this place. Though this tension soon ends when he leaves an apology note for drinking their booze and leaves. Though the rest of the story proves that the boozing is the point. It is refreshing to read a story that is just about a strong urge and fulfillment of the urge to drink. Many humans just pursue this singular purpose across their lives, and their voices should be represented in modern fiction.
The story that grabbed my attention from the blurb is about “The Nudists”. It starts off in a funny way: “Shelly Bowman had to save her mother from the nudists.” Her father pushes her into this savior-complex by complaining the mother is “disagreeable” and has joined “some sex camp”. The name of the camp is also funny: “Captain Al’s Nudist Resort.” Shelly id described as a representative of the “most rural district on the Bear County Commission”. Descriptions of the drive and the scenery are logical and clear in their lengthy, multi-phrases. She hopes she can run for higher offices in the future, and for this she needs to stop her mother from embarrassing her future chances. There is a clear explanation about how this would be a political liability (117-9).
This is a great collection of stories for those who want to learn a bit about our modern reality, as opposed to about fantastic things that could never happen. It is dramatically and descriptively written to attract both mainstream and academic readers. School and college libraries should have a copy. And researchers of modern fiction would enjoy this work more than most alternatives in this literary genre.
Pennsylvania Literary Journal: Spring 2025 issue: https://anaphoraliterary.com/journals/plj/plj-excerpts/book-reviews-spring-2025

I liked this collection of short stories about the unique and realistic characters of a fictional small town in Northern Michigan. His descriptions of small town life are accurate and sometimes funny and kept me interested and entertained.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this collection of stories set in a fictional county in the Northwestern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. I have a big soft spot for books set in my home state, and this felt like visiting a neighboring town not far from where I grew up. It is often bleak; rural Michigan has a lot of poverty, inequality, and drug problems. But it is also beautiful. I think he did a good job holding all of that.

This was a really well done collection of stories, it had that element that I was looking for. It was everything that I wanted in this type of book and enjoyed the stories in this collection. John Counts was able to write interesting stories and was glad everything worked together to tell the story that it needed to.

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of short stores. They are masterfully crafted and although each is unique all are equally fabulous.

4.5 stars

Bear County, Michigan is a collection of stories involving the residents of a fictional county in northern Michigan.

Being from a small town in northern Michigan myself, now living in the city, reading this was almost a bit nostalgic, albeit dramatized. I felt like I actually knew these people, which made all the stories even more impactful! The writing style was fantastic, resulting in some pretty great quotes in here, such as "these were true moments he never knew could exist again. Maybe that's what made them true. The not knowing. The surprise." Or, my personal favorite, "sometimes to tell the truth you have to make stuff up."

Overall fantastic collection of short stories! Truly brought an imaginary county and its residents to life.

Thanks to Netgalley and Northwestern University Press for the chance to read this book.

As a native michigander I LOVED this book, it was so cool and a fun read for anyone from the state. I really liked the clear and concise writing style so you could picture what the author was speaking about