“Amanda drove and let Jenny doze in the front seat while Lucy slept in back. They woke just south of Duluth. They spent the night in a little town called Superior. In the morning they stopped at the grocery store in Duluth to stock up for the week.” — (Chapter 17)
“The road they traveled from Duluth had stretched out ruler-straight for miles, cutting farm fields in half, as pastures fell away toward island lakes. Dark clouds gathered in the western sky as they entered the great expanses of forest in Wisconsin.” –(Chapter 21)
from LUCY (A Novel) by Laurence Gonzales (2010)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HS6XyFCKfE
9 thoughts on “Duluth references in <i>Lucy</i>”
Wait. So they went to Superior (little town?), went back to Duluth for groceries then headed on some road back outta Superior? And what road is that they traveled from in chapter 21? Having a hard time envisioning which it might be, Hwy 2 is straighter than 13, but not exactly ruler straight, and no obvious inland lakes, E of Ashland is a lot straighter but you’re starting to run out of Wisconsin by then. Hwy 13 just doesn’t fit at all, and 53 is just going the wrong direction, as does State Hwy 35, County Rd A, etc,
The next 3 sentences, in the Chapter 21 section, are: “Lucy caught scent of deer and fox and even wolf in there. Somewhere around Washburn, Jenny said, “I think you should talk to Amanda now. The whole world is going to know soon enough.”
———–
The “dark clouds” in the “western sky” threw me off but they could have been in the rearview. The group was returning from a trip to the Boundary Waters and had merely passed through the Twin Ports on their way, both coming and going. The lakes were “island lakes,” as quoted, rather than inland lakes (for whatever that’s worth). I vote for Hwy 13 although I suspect Hwy 53 also works. Truth is stranger than fishin’.
Sherlock Holmes and the Red Demon by Larry Millett
https://www.larrymillett.com/books/#sh_red
I read it over 10 years ago but I enjoyed it. It has a great account of Duluth and Superior from that period
“In Duluth a man in khaki shorts and sandals walked up and down Piedmont Avenue with a large smear of ash on his forehead and a hand-lettered sandwich board hanging over his scrawny shoulders.”
-Stephen King: The Stand
Source: Google books Booya!
Here’s a link to the ongoing list of References to Duluth in Famous Literature.
Ah. Dammit. I thought I was being smart by googling that. Thanks, Paul.
As a total aside, am I the only one this ever bothered? I mean…of all the places a crazy Duluth guy has to walk, Piedmont has to be near the bottom of the list. Even if he’s not walking on the “hill” area of the road, the part up in the residential section doesn’t seem like prime sign-toting territory.
Yeah, I think too much.
I think World War Z takes place in Georgia. No?
It’s not exactly popular literature, but in X-Men ssn 5 ep 14 Duluth was named as one of the mutant occupied cities in a mutant rebellion.