“Something quite wonderful happens when you allow yourself to drift through life without a plan of direction,” writes Jack Buck in his poignant debut story collection. The writing in ''Deer Michigan'' takes this philosophy to heart, embracing the flux of fate in over fifty ethereal narratives. In one story we meet an exiled Mao on a hiking trail, in another the narrator mourns the graceful disappearance of birds. Buck’s stories ripple with nostalgia, a reverence for the natural world and an America with room in which to wander. Though the stories in ''Deer Michigan'' are short—in one case spun out in a single sentence—they bottle up an expanse of human experience, offering us a stunning universe of feeling. ~ Allegra Hyde, author of ''Of This New World''
