The significance of the title of Wisconsin author Jim Guhl’s debut novel doesn’t become apparent until about halfway through Eleven Miles to Oshkosh (University of Wisconsin Press). Rather, much of this charming coming-of-age mystery takes place in circa-1972 Neenah — located about 11 miles from Oshkosh.
Guhl grew up in the Fox Valley, and his knowledge of and passion for that area seeps from nearly every page as he re-creates an era when teenage boys gave their Schwinn Typhoon bicycles nicknames like “Ike” and wolfed down breakfasts of Pop-Tarts and Tang every morning.
Engaging narrator Del “Minnow” Finwick, a bullied sophomore at Neenah’s Shattuck High School, knows the region’s geography, landscape and prime fishing spots, and he relishes any opportunity to share the valley’s Native American history with anybody willing to listen.
Eleven Miles to Oshkosh opens with the funeral of Del’s dad, a Winnebago County deputy sheriff who was killed in the line of duty by the “Highway 41 Killer” (still on the loose, by the way). Frustrated with what he considers inaction by Sheriff Heiselmann and his department in solving the murder, Del decides to seek justice on his own with the encouragement of his loyal pal Mark.
The oddball cast of characters includes Opal Parsons, Shattuck’s first African American student and the only black person Del knows; Del’s roguish Grandpa Asa, whose penchant for mischief often trumps his old-man wisdom; Del’s drunk mother, who is suffering from both multiple sclerosis and a broken heart; and Steve, Del and Mark’s crazy friend who plots complicated pranks against rival Menasha High School’s football and baseball teams.
Guhl, a former engineer who now lives in Hudson, writes in a smooth style with broad appeal that crosses generational borders — a book perfect for passing around to other family members.
That said, Del is prone to annoying exaggeration (Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote “The Charge of the Light Brigade” “about a million years ago”) and his voice sometimes comes off as either too old or too young to be a high school sophomore. But Guhl nails the emotions of a teenage boy at a pivotal time in his life, not only in the way Del endeavors to become one of Opal’s first friends at school, but also by how he stands up to Heiselmann and triggers his own survival instincts in a thrilling climax.
In one of the most memorable scenes Del asks his mother to teach him to dance in the middle of the night, and then envisions his parents “twirling and floating” across the floors of dance halls in a bygone era.
Eleven Miles to Oshkosh is a nostalgia trip worth taking.
