I'm not sure thirty pages in what the title "Laurentian Divide" has to do with the story, as it seems to focus mainly on the speculation of a small Minnesota community that their solitary neighbor has died because the weather's gotten warm and he hasn't made it into town yet. When they aren't collectively speculating about the potential ways he has kicked the bucket, it's characters focusing on his dog dying, or two young woman that recently died in the community. While I don't mind death playing a role in the telling of a story, the focus on whether or not someone's dead seems a weird focus - just go out there and check!