Going to the Center: a Novel of Woman's Life & Prairie Town's History

Lundy Center has stories to be told and characters to tell them. Mariah McPherson wants to gather their stories for her 1976 Bicentennial history of the prairie town and rural landscape she loves. Her conversations become an intimate social history as well as a means to re-create herself and rebuild her relationships. As she reconnects with her community, she becomes a support for teenagers coming of age in the turbulent Sixties and Seventies. The personal journeys and histories are expressed in the songs they all create for the annual Lundy Sunday Music Fest.As the village librarian, Mariah begins gathering oral history interviews with colorful elders in 1967. She weaves together journal entries, family memories, and village stories with affectionate humor, while exploring social changes, mysteries, and heartaches. History does not stop in 1976; she and the "children of her spirit" continue to find their places in the village life, record its history, and sing their songs