Calumet Editions

Hand Me Down My Walking Cane

2nd Edition

During the Great Depression, Faunce Ridge on the Minnesota–Canadian border is condemned as a New Deal “rural slum.” Emil Rousseau returns to photograph neighbors’ hardship to justify resettlement—but they refuse to leave. Narrated through Emil, his sweetheart Rose, madam Sadie, and bootlegger Magnus, this novel evokes the borderland’s harsh beauty, history, and mystical hold.

Her characters are fully realized; her descriptions of the landscape make you long for ‘up north’ and her dialogue is spot-on.

—Mary Ann Grossman, Pioneer Press

Description

At the height of the Great Depression, Faunce Ridge, a tiny village on the Minnesota-Canadian border, is labeled a rural slum by Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal Resettlement Administration. Hometown boy, Emil Rousseau, is sent to photograph the poverty of his childhood neighbors to sell Congress on resettling them and other struggling farmers. Except that Faunce Ridge residents don’t want to move. Told from the perspective of Emil, Rose—his high school sweetheart—madam Sadie, and bootlegger Magnus, Hand Me Down My Walking Cane speaks to the mystical pull of this harsh and beautiful place while bringing to vivid life the history of the borderland and the people who lived there.

Product Details

PublishedSeptember 6, 2023
ImprintCalumet Editions
LanguageEnglish
Print length254
ISBN-13978-1960250865
Dimensions6 x 0.64 x 9 inches

Carla Hagen is a terrific storyteller, recreating a north country world gone by. It’s like finding a sepia-toned family album you just can’t put down.

—Judith Kratz, University of Minnesota Department of English, Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies

A dazzling tale of life on the Minnesota border with Canada during the 1930s.

—Diana Anhalt, author, A Gathering of Fugitives: American Political Expatriots in Mexico 1948–1965

Hagen’s characters are nuanced and vibrant; my favorite character is the anti-hero Magnus, a troubled bootlegger whom Hagen treats with empathy even as he becomes violent and unhinged. The ending is poetic and plays upon the power and mystery of nature.

—Jenny Niemela, verified review on Amazon

It has an epic quality, likable and interesting. This story takes you to another place and time. I didn’t want to put it down! Kudos to the author for her fine American storytelling!

—Avid Reader & Traveler, verified review on Amazon

A very complex tale, with overlapping story lines and character development, this book is worthy of Louise Erdrich. Serious, well-written, solid history, and great exposition. Well worth reading, well worth giving as a present to an intelligent grandchild and a very worthy entry for anyone’s book club.

—LimaBN, verified review on Amazon

She has created a dazzling tale of life on the Minnesota border with Canada during the 1930s Prohibition and peopled it with a compelling cast of characters, displaced by history and personal circumstances.

—Diana Anhalt, verified review on Amazon