Thin Ice

<B>DESCRIPTION</B><BR /> This unique volume contains twenty-eight fascinating life stories of people -- many of whom went on to become famous -- who grew up in Grand Rapids Michigan.<BR /><BR /> The coming-of-age stories in <I>Thin Ice</I> relate a range of experiences both good and bad including happy memories and heartwarming recollections but also personal traumas intergenerational and racial conflicts the strictures of religious belief and practice the joys and sorrows of young romance and more. Above and beyond the stories of the more notable personalities -- Jim Harrison Roger Wilkins John Hockenberry President Gerald Ford Betty Ford Al Green Paul Schrader William Brashler -- the book as a whole is chock-full of crisp humorous irreverent and moving writing.<BR /><BR /> Reinder Van Til and Gordon Olson have excerpted half of the pieces from previous publications while they directly solicited the other half from active writers specifically for this book. The earliest stories go back to the 1830s and 1850s and the most recent are a cluster of contemporary pieces that describe coming of age in the Grand Rapids of the 1960s through the 1980s. Together they paint a multifaceted impressionistic portrait of a century and a half in the fair city of Grand Rapids Michigan.<BR /><BR /> All in all <I>Thin Ice</I> is a nostalgic treasure for any Grand Rapidian and literary treasure for e v e r y one.<BR /><BR /><B>Contributors</B><BR />   Albert Baxter<BR /> Charles E. Belknap<BR /> A. J. Muste<BR /> Arnold Gingrich<BR /> David Cornel DeJong<BR /> Gerald R. Ford<BR /> Betty Ford<BR /> Edward V. Gillis<BR /> John Thompson<BR /> Roger Wilkins<BR /> Jim Harrison<BR /> Glen Peterson<BR /> Max Apple<BR /> John Otterbacher<BR /> Reinder Van Til<BR /> Al Green<BR /> Paul Schrader<BR /> Robert VanderMolen<BR /> William Brashler<BR /> Sheri Venema<BR /> Hank Meijer<BR /> Charles Honey<BR /> Tom Rademacher<BR /> Levi Rickert<BR /> John Hockenberry<BR /> Laura Kasischke<BR /> Kaye Longberg<BR /> Bich Minh Nguyen