Publisher's Synopsis
Frogtown Tales is a cross between Thoreau & Pirsig. It's On Bowdish Swamp or Zen and the Art of Garden Tractor Maintenance. Or perhaps it's a cross between Garrison Keillor and Popular Mechanics. It's A Swamp Home Companion or "How to Cultivate Wild Flowers in 50 Torturous (and Ironic) Steps". Originally composed as a series of e-mails to his son over the course of twenty-three years, this collection is an extended love letter to the next generation and an homage to making your own place to call home. Something happens to Wright as he struggles with the bureaucracy and ineptitude of those he must face as he and his wife decide to leave the lemmings of suburbia and create a new life in the country. Something wonderful. After the land is purchased and the builders contracted, the architect emigrates to Australia and leaves the plans unfinished. An error made in the physical address three years prior by Consumer's Power sends Wright on a quest to the County Court house, then the Register of Deeds, then to the County Building Annex, then to the Treasurer's Office, then to the Equalization Department, and a series of phone calls. The builders produce invoices and spreadsheets claiming they are $28,000 over budget and threaten to sue. It's nearly enough to drive him back to drink. However, eventually they move in and the community of colorful neighbors welcomes them. The pace slows as Wright learns to appreciate the flora and fauna. Except the mice. And the Poison Ivy. His stories become more fanciful. He starts to tell a few stretchers, and the tales show a love of character and a little known shop in Ann Arbor called WaWho's Shop of Rare and Delectable Drinks. (They specialize in imported root beers.)
