I’m not a fan of India Pale Ales. They have always been acrid and awful to my taste. But I brought home a case of Two Hearted IPA the other day, which takes its name after a river that drives through the wilds of Northern Michigan, where it will continue to flow long after we are gone.   

There are different stories as to how the river got its curious name. In one telling, it’s a reference to the magnanimity of the settlers, who, with hearts so big they may as well have had two, once welcomed a Confederate veteran as he sought to start anew after the Civil War. It is said he lived in a cabin perched upon the headwaters of the eastward-flowing river. It must have been nice each morning to watch the rays of the rising sun strike the waters.   

But the real reason I picked up this case of beer is that Two Hearted River is the setting of Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Big Two-Hearted River,” which follows the author’s autobiographical character Nick Adams as he licks the wounds brought home from World War I. On the surface, it’s a story about a fishing trip. In reality, it’s about one man healing amid the madness that consumed the 20^th century through communion with nature. It’s an evergreen story in that way and relevant now.