By DEBORAH BEHRENDS Illinois Correspondent
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — Leaving the suburbs of Detroit as a younger man, with a stint in Alaska, John Hildebrand returned to the Midwest for work and writes about what makes the area a great place to call home in his new collection of essays, The Heart of Things. Originally written as individual essays for Wisconsin Trails magazine, each chapter evokes memories of everyday life in the middle of the United States. He writes about the Lenten season church fish boils, Friday night high school football, the local Farm Beginnings program, the trips to take children to college and more. Hildebrand said when he was recruited to write for the magazine, he was asked to write a column of about 700 words every other month. He thought it would be easy, since the English professor already had penned three books and was in the habit of writing much longer magazine pieces of 9,000-10,000 words. “When I would write one of these columns, I would think about something typical of Midwestern life – not just describing it, but why was it significant and meaningful,” Hildebrand said. “I wanted to examine the ordinary life and find out what’s special about it.” He said his intention was to bring all the pieces together and put them in almanac form. The chapters are titled with the months of the year. “You can pick it up anywhere. Start in September or jump ahead to December. I wanted to deal with things that people could recognize, something familiar.” He didn’t grow up on a farm, but his wife did. “It has become clear to me that we see the world differently,” he said. “Because we live in such a mobile society, home is now a choice. Where we live is not inevitable. “I remember feeling strange to come back to the Midwest,” Hildebrand added. “But when I came back, I found there was a lot here that interested me. It’s actually a wonderful place to live; I’ve lived here ever since.” Little of the book is specifically about farming. Hildebrand said it’s more about home. “One of the writers who was nice enough to give a blurb for the book, Lorrie Moore, said the book demonstrates what it means to pick a world and become a citizen of it,” he explained. “Often the people I work with, my colleagues at the University (of Wisconsin – Eau Claire) will talk about how the center of the world is New York or somewhere else. For me, this is the center of the world. It becomes the center of your world if you allow it to; if you make connections.” The Heart of Things is available for purchase online at www.wisconsinhistory.org |
