I love stories about Americana, stories that dive into the minutiae of day to day details of the shop around the corner that the whole town meets at for lunch or coffee. Where the whole town gathers for a wedding, and the bride is the center of attention for her week. Carson McCullers , Twain and Faulkner dived into the lives of the small town inhabitants, much like this book did.In the first chapter we know that the wedding of the year can't continue without the isolated loaner of the Reserve Rauri being present. He is a coffee shop legend..a man of the land who doesn't own a gun, who lives off the land and only comes into town after a long winter like a hunter or trapper of days away. I still don't know what a Laurentan Divide is, only a native would get the refference..maybe it is where the great lake or river meets the sky. In a small town people slow down to do things like leaving the waitress an origami tip, you won't find this in your local Starbucks.I love the detail of even the mens room, where the grafiti is left as a homage to time, and history of the town itself. You find your mind drifting and imagining the streets,the normal lives that are happy to meet at the same shops every day. It is a book to read and go back and reread as prose that comes alive on the page. I give it 4 stars.