Broken Hart

Small towns come and go. They come with a saloon, a bar. The town prospers. Townspeople add a grocery store, a gas station, a church. The town continues to grow. They add a school, a post office, a feed mill. Population grows, steadies, and ebbs. The town shrinks. The school consolidates, the post office moves, the feed mill goes broke. Always, the bar remains. Such is the Broken Hart -- entertainment center, watering hole, fried food emporium, and political, social, and cultural center of Rye, Minnesota, population 69.

Sully Hart bought the bar years ago. The man had faults, but served a good, cold tap beer and a great cheeseburger. His fault line involved his stock in trade -- alcohol. In time, he lost his wife, his health, and his business. Sully Hart was a broken man when he left town, and the establishment came to be known as the Broken Hart.

Welcome.

228 pages.

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"Although Jerry Mevissen's stories take place in small-town Minnesota, they could be set anywhere. Like the best of literature, they tap into the universal human experience. These are stories about our families, our neighbors, the people we all know. The wonderful thing is that Mevissen helps us see them in a fresh light. As a result, we know them--and ourselves--a little better. He's a natural storyteller and his tales come straight from the heart. Don't miss this superb collection."

William Kent Kruger, author of Thunder Bay


"Broken Hart evokes the multifaceted experience of living in a small town, through realistically and thoughtfully drawn characters. Mevissen's stories are told with the simple grace of small-town folk, creating a vivid picture of rural life in Northern Minnesota. Through their individual actions and interactions, the characters evoke many of the challenges facing rural America -- including poverty, shrinking populations, and a shift in the agricultural economy--while at the same time emphasizing the unique culture, unity, and history of small communities."

Kris Bigalk, Professor of English, Normandale College


"Broken Hart saloon is at the rural crossroads of these compelling stories relayed by born story- teller Jerry Mevissen. I say "relayed" because they feel deeply real, something overheard, sitting perhaps at the bar of the Broken Hart."

Faith Sullivan, author of The Cape Ann

Nimrod Chronicles

When Henry Butzin, neighbor, friend, and resident woodsman, died in 2000, I wrote a eulogy with the intent of reading it at his wake or funeral. I couldn't muster the courage. Tim Bloomquist, editor of the Review Messenger, agreed to print it, which led to discussion of a weekly column. And so, the Nimrod Chronicles was born. In time, there were enough Chronicles to fill a book.

Subject matter for the columns meanders from local history to current events, profiles of contemporary and historical residents, essays, and humor. My criterion is that the subject reside or occur within a five mile radius of Nimrod. That may sound like a challenge, with Nimrod having a population of seventy-five. Not so. There's material here for a dozen books, a few of which have already been written.

Rural and small-town life has been mined for literature many times. It's a tribute to its richness that there are still stories to be told. The richness comes, I think, from lives having been tested, and survived. Self-reliance is worn like an old seed-corn hat. And it makes good fodder for writers.

353 pages, photographs and text.

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