When Norah Stoddard tries out for the high school men’s varsity baseball team in 1986, she rocks little Glorious, Wisconsin out of the malaise spawned by the farm crisis. When her alcoholic mother and the latest of Mom’s abusive “boyfriends” drive Norah from her home, Bee Cooney and Reb Early, proprietors of Degan’s Dinky Diner, take Norah in. “The voice of Glorious,” Kenny Kellogg, a cynical radio vagabond, has fallen from the heights, his slide into Glorious slicked by liquor and loneliness. A young woman in town looking for her biological dad, the disgraced ex-editor of the town weekly, and Norah, may just turn his life around along with their own.
“If you love baseball, rock 'n' roll and small-town diners, you can't do better than Marshall Cook's Glorious. Cook immerses us in a world where deeply-held values encounter a rapidly changing world. The result is a joy to read.” —Craig Werner, Professor of Afro-American Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of A Change is Gonna Come: Music and Race and the Soul of America, We Gotta Get Outta This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War (with Doug Bradley), and others books.
“Marshall Cook aptly captures the essence of small-town Americana, creating an array of wonderful people with problems and dreams that are relatable in today’s world. A highly recommended escape from our hurly-burly world.” --Christine DeSmet, faculty associate in writing and director of the Write-by-the-Lake Writer’s Workshop & Retreat at UW-Madison, award-winning screenwriter, and author of Fudge Shop mystery series and Mischief in Moonstone mystery series.
“Marshall Cook creates a midwestern version of ‘Northern Exposure’ peopled with characters as engaging as they are memorable. I don't think anyone writes about small-town USA like Marshall does.” —Maddy Hunter, author of the Passport to Peril mystery series.
“They say write what you know, and Marshall Cook knows small towns, baseball, newspapers, diners, and most important, the vagabond ways of the human heart. He makes you care about his people and root for them as they stumble to find their way.” —Doug Moe, author of The World of Mike Royko and Lords of the Ring
“Marshall Cook skillfully takes us through examinations of feminism, inappropriate affairs, racism, alcoholism, mental illness, and ultimately, loneliness. You will recognize these characters and find yourself cheering for them.” --Kathie Giorgio, Director, AllWriters' Workplace & Workshop and author of numerous books, including The Home For Wayward Clocks
