Wild Blueberries, Peter Damm
Wild Blueberries, Peter Damm
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Wild Blueberries
Tales of Nuns, Rabbits & Discovery in Rural Michigan

Author: Peter Damm

Narrator: Joe Barrett

Unabridged: 4 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/28/2020

Synopsis

Some writers look at life with their eyes, others with their heart. In this collection of evocative, funny, and moving stories, Peter Damm does both. These are vignettes of growing up in small town, rural Michigan, but also a closely observed portrait of mid-century America. The tone is alternately wry, elegiac, poignant, and humorous, as Damm recalls the joys of fishing on a northern lake, the rigors and confusion of childhood, or feasting on blueberries in autumn. But this isn’t a collection of pretty postcards. Damm’s family experienced difficulty, alcoholism, and loss, and he writes with a survivor’s compassion. The writing is beautiful—spare, direct, lyrical, truthful. These are stories for all the senses, held in place by strands of memory alternately steel and gold.

About Peter Damm

Peter Damm’s life has traveled varied tracks. He has studied with National Book Award winner Wright Morris, and with Guggenheim Fellow and National Jewish Book Award winner Leo Litwak in the Master’s Creative Writing Program at San Francisco State University. He has lived abroad and traveled widely in Europe, India, Bali, Mexico, and parts of the Middle East, Indonesia, Central and South America, and New Zealand. His book of poems, At The Water’s Edge, chronicles a five-month journey in Bali, Indonesia, and New Zealand.

About Joe Barrett

Joe Barrett began his acting career at the age of five in the basement of his family's home in upstate New York. He has gone on to play many stage roles, both on and off-Broadway, and in regional theaters from Los Angeles, Houston, and St. Louis to Washington DC, San Francisco, and Portland, Maine. He has appeared in films and television, both prime time and late night, and in hundreds of television and radio commercials. Joe has narrated over two hundred audiobooks. He has been an Audie Award finalist eight times, and his narration of Gun Church by Reed Farrel Coleman won the 2013 Audie Award for Original Work. AudioFile magazine has granted Joe fourteen Earphones Awards, including for James Salter's All That Is and Donald Katz's Home Fires. Regarding Joe's narration of John Irving's A Prayer For Owen Meany, AudioFile said, "This moving book comes across like a concerto . . . with a soloist-Owen's voice-rising from the background of an orchestral narration." Joe is married to actor Andrea Wright, and together they have four very grown children.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Eric

One of the most delightful books I've read in some time. Peter Damm takes us on a journey through his childhood, sharing a variety of stories of growing up, discovery, questions, and family life. Raised in a Catholic family/community, I found myself laughing on several occasions as this young boy se......more

Goodreads review by Patricia

A collection of short stories, mostly endearing childhood memories told with a young boy's eye, about growing up in Michigan, enjoying fishing, spying through peepholes and life as the youngest boy in a big Catholic family. The stories may particularly appeal to out-state Michiganders, as they are c......more

Goodreads review by Kathleen

Started it at the beach so I could just read story at a time between swims. Some stories I liked, other not but, decided to finish the book. So very glad I did because the last story is about his father becoming ill and the eventual death. I just lost my father 4 months ago so, this story hit home a......more

Quotes

“The setting is as much a character in the book as the people…Damm writes about autumn in Northern Michigan with lyrical wonder.” Michigan Today

“I will wear this book out to my heart’s content.” Susan Harper, writer, book editor, and university creative writing instructor

“Wild Blueberries is a joy to read…a lyrical, rich, and complex account of growing up in rural Michigan.” Leo Litwak, winner of the Jewish National Book Award

“This is a lovely collection of stories, well conceived and beautifully told. The clean economy of the language and its cadences possess a quality that is almost poetic. Wild Blueberries is a gem of a book.” William Rodarmor, award-winning journalist and translator

“Damm tenderly sketches out the delights and tribulations of a seemingly quiet Midwestern childhood…We hear the questions of a smart, sensitive young man trying to puzzle out the mysteries of sin, sex, and spirit and make sense of the adult world…[with] gentleness and humor.” J. Ruth Gendler, author of The Book of Qualities

Awards

  • Great Lakes Great Reads Pick
  • Memoir Prize for Books
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