The Cobbler in the Devil's Kitchen: From "mackinac and Lake Stories", 1899
The Cobbler in the Devil's Kitchen: From "mackinac and Lake Stories", 1899
An Irish cobbler has retreated to the Devil's Kitchen, that remote rocky point on Mackinac Island where the lake water crashes below and the world feels a thousand miles from anywhere. Owen Cunning wants only to shoe the island's French voyageurs and Native American visitors in peace, but solitude proves harder to come by than he expects. A Sac girl named Blackbird drifts in and out of his orbit. An old acquaintance named John McGillis arrives with a complicated romantic situation that threatens his status as a widower, and suddenly Owen finds himself entangled in the very human mess he'd been trying to escape. Catherwood writes with sharp, affectionate humor about the collisions between cultures on this island where French, Irish, Native American, and Anglo lives braid together against a backdrop of water and stone. The story builds to a resolution that is both funny and quietly moving, a testament to how even the most stubborn loner cannot remain untouched by the lives around him.
