Tales From The Loon Town Cafe Paperback – February 16, 2013

The story was very well written for the most part. I hesitated leaving an open review on this book because I did not want to sound like Bromley or van Elkind, but with a lack of method to contact the author discretely, this is the way to do it, I suppose. It is obvious that Mr. Frohmann has a deep understanding and relationship with language. I also admired the way he shared homosexuality in a way that didn't seem too stereotypical (victory). It was subtle and tastefully written.There are two major issues I had with this book, however.First, it was littered to the point of annoyance with typos: misplaced or wrong punctuation, noun-verb disagreements, missing words. I could fill in the blanks, but it got tiresome to have to do so. It look unprofessional, which is a shame because I thought he wrote far better than some of the bestselling authors today.Second, Gilbert's narrative about the watch was all wrong. It was beautiful, a beautiful story he told, but it was just off because... who talks like that? And a travelling salesman at that? It was unrealistic for dialogue, but had he framed it better it would have made sense to the reader. Too many details were injected into that side-story as well.I enjoyed the book and I envied the talent of Mr. Frohmann, but the two issues I mentioned keep me from giving it five stars. I will still recommend it to my friends. I just hope that when he gets an editor, that editor doesn't go stomping through this story and ripping things to shreds. It just needs the typos addressed. If he doesn't want to hire an editor, divide the book into chapters and hand it out to good friends to edit for him, or us readers who were astute enough to notice them.

This is one of those rare books that at least to me, really make you (gasp!) relax as you read it. Those so called "page turners" are nice but they can be bad for your health. Such high speed reading can cause high blood pressure, sore eyes and in my case, a wife getting pissed at me for not checking out a toilet that was overflowing. I was yelling at her to stop yelling at me to fix the toilet when I was furiously flipping pages of a "page turner" to get to the conclusion of yet another crisis in that novel.This novel contains a series of connecting anecdotes (or tales) the protagonist tells about his return to his northern Wisconsin town to escape the torments of living in NYC. You won't find this town on a map but if you ever lived, or vacationed, in northern Wisconsin, you can probably relate to this story. I use to vacation in Hayward, Wisconsin many years ago and I remember the early morning calling of Loons on the foggy lake outside my cabin. Had I gone into town and mingled with the locals, I am sure I would have experienced at least some of what this fictional character experienced.So, if you just want to read a book the old fashioned way, get into your favorite chair, set up a table with snacks and drinks and prepare to read this book. In my case, the chair and table was a bistro table set up outside under my covered patio. The drink was an ice cold pastis accompanied by a 90 minute cigar. I was able to interrupt my reading often to sip my drink, smoke my cigar and look at the humming birds drawing nectar from my Bird of Paradise plants. Unfortunately, we do not have Loons in the Arizona desert.

I decided to give it a read since the novel was located in Northern Wisconsin. I was grew up in that state and "up north" was where we all wanted to be in the summertime ... I usually read fantasy and science fiction but thought what the heck and started reading ... I couldn't put it down ... others said they couldn't get into the characters or they were too strange etc. Oh my no way ... I've lived in small towns and I can tell you that some small towns are even stranger than Thread (grin) ... In the 80's in Northern Wisconsin there was a real war going on over the hunting and fishing rights of the Ojibwa and it also got very intense. I think because of the realism of the issues I enjoyed the story even more. However it was the characters and their stories that kept me coming back to the Loon Town Cafe. I really hated to have the story end because got to know the inhabitants and wanted to spend more time with them (smile) ... so if you like odd ball characters and the everyday life of a small town mixed with a the conniving shenanigans of those wanting to pad their pockets (no I won't say more .. don't want to spoil the story for you), then you have to travel to Thread and spend some time in the Loon Town Cafe. ... have a nice visit (smile)

Disproving the adage that you can't go home again, Wally Peterson finds himself back in his home town in Wisconsin pursuing his dream of running a restaurant. Like many small Midwestern towns, it may not be much on the outside but that's because the charm is really found within the community itself and the eccentricities of the people who populate it - their stories, and views on why things are the way they are - and for Wally, they provide a different perspective on the town he was once so anxious to leave.But that's only part of the delight. Some of the actual history of the area is woven into the fiction and you can almost feel the changing seasons described as the story progresses. But let's not forget the restaurant and the menus inspired by Wally's years in New York that find you rethinking your own dinner plans. At the same time, he learns to accommodate the eating traditions of the local folk because as all of us who have grown up in small communities know, change doesn't happen quickly

Really Pearson leaves NYC after recovering from being mugged. His girlfriend was brutally beaten as he was but she died. He keeps this secret when he moves back home to Thread Wiscosin. He opens the Loon Town Cafe. The locals are all types of people, some quite eccentric, racist against local Indian Reservation, greedy. But in crisis the town comes together. There is a lot of nature two lakes, river, fishing. There are surprises, love, gay couple, out of towners, so many emotions. Winters are very very cold & long. Many twists & turns to follow. Good book.