Virgil Wander

One of my favorite authors is Leif Enger so I was eager to read Virgil Wander. This novel, set 20 miles north east of Duluth on Highway 61 in a town called Greenstone (cough Two Harbors cough) is about a guy named Virgil. Virgil runs a theater in town and also works as a clerk at city hall. One night, driving in a snow storm down the highway, his car sails over the guard rail and comes to rest 60 feet below the frigid water of Lake Superior. A guy is fishing on shore. He sees the car sail over his head. He rescues Virgil. Virgil wakes up in a hospital in Duluth with no car, no cell phone, and memory issues due to a traumatic brain injury. An odd complication of his brain injury is that his use of adjectives is gone. The author used a tricky way to describe Virgil before and after the head injury. He will write "the former tenant of this house would have done it but the current resident would not." I loved reading this story. My favorite part was the story of a huge sturgeon that swims in and out of lake Superior and upstream. A ten year old boy is hunting this monster sturgeon because he believes the sturgeon is at fault for the death of his father. You will just have to read the book to find out what happens to the sturgeon.