I am currently reading/working my way through the Spearfish Lake Tales stories. There are 65 books with nearly 2100 chapters in total. Only about 8 or 9 books are NOT interrelated around the fictional north Michigan town of Spearfish Lake, as well as a few other near by fictional localities. The bulk of the tales cover the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, though there are retrospectives and flash-backs as far back as the late 1940s.

The initial protagonists are a group of Vietnam veterans (1962 through 1972) and their families, as well as a small high school class of 1988. We get to follow their lives and adventures. Despite the small town setting, according to the blurbs, there is at least one trans protagonist in that group. And if my memory is correct — from reading a few of these stories some 20 years ago — there are also some other trans and/or cross-dressing elements scattered throughout the stories.

But back to my title question. I am about 7% into carefully working my way through this collection. A group of of vets is back in Vietnam in late 1990 in search of the fate of the only person from Spearfish Lake who went MIA. They know where he was last seen, and start a fairly involved search for his remains. Even so, it is like the proverbial needle in the haystack. When at the end of the first day, one of their Vietnamese guides/interpreters shares the following wisdom:

You will find nothing, and nothing, and more nothing, unless you should happen to find something. If you find something, it will be the last place you have to look.

That trueism is such a gem, that is cause me to laugh out loud.

Be aware though, that the online version of these books is rather messy with encoding and mark-up issues. So reading the online version can be somewhat tedious and difficult. But the stories are well worth the effort. Because there is a lot of humor despite the trauma and hardships the protagonists face.

With kind regards,
Jessica Nicole