Returning to Earth.(Brief article)(Book review)

Returning to Earth JIM HARRISON. Grove, $24 (272p) ISBN 978-0-8021-1838-7

Dying at 45 of Lou Gehrig's disease, Donald, who is Chippewa-Finnish, dictates his family story to his wife, Cynthia, who records this headlong tale for their two grown children (and also interjects). Donald's half-Chippewa great-grandfather, Clarence, set out from Minnesota in 1871 at age 13 for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In Donald's compellingly digressive telling, Clarence worked the farms and mines of the northern Midwest, and arrived in the Marquette, Mich., area 35 years later. As Donald weaves the tale of his settled life of marriage and fatherhood with that of his restless …