Jerusalem Creek

Every existence has its pulse points," writes Ted Leeson in this latest book, "those places where life rises somehow closer to the surface and makes itself more keenly felt. Spring creeks have been mine." Jerusalem Creek is an exploration into the unique landscape of the "driftless area" in southwest Wisconsin, "a geography of small concealments"-of coves and hollows, oak groves and shady bends, winding brooks and trout. "It is not a landscape that you hike up, or climb down into, or stand out looking upon; it is one that you slip inside of," and this book presents the view from within. Leeson reflects on waters and people, and the experiences and ideas that shaped his understanding of spring creek country. By turns thoughtful and hilarious, passionate and wry, he journeys into the special charms of small-scale waters and pastoral spaces; the nature of meandering trout streams and fishermen; ruminations on dairy cows, honeybees, and the midwestern character; family and angling companions; Amish farmsteads; the memory of a missing photograph; the equivocal dream of owning a trout stream; the ways in which the past endures in the present. Layered and overlapping, like the limestone geology of driftless country, the meditations in this book cumulatively tell the story of how we create the places we love, and how they in turn create us. Jerusalem Creek is a wise, poignant, and haunting book about those places that remain with us long after we've left them.