Ohio City is a Cleveland neighborhood located just west of the Cuyahoga River. Downtown Cleveland sits on the other side of the river. With that little geography lesson one can better appreciate “Cuyahoga,” the delightful 2020 novel by former Clevelander Pete Beatty.

Beatty's tall-tale of a novel imagines this area in 1837 when the these two communities are separate towns and bitter rivals. Cleveland is already bigger than Ohio City, the latter's only advantage being that Columbus Road, which brings agricultural goods up from the central part of Ohio, reaches Lake Erie on the west side of the river. But Cleveland plans to build a bridge that will allow wagons to easily get to the Cleveland side. Now things get interesting.

The novel's focus rests on a Paul Bunyan-like Ohio City man named Big Son, who already has built a reputation for his incredible feats. He seems capable of anything — anything, that is, but getting a paying a job and winning the hand of his step-sister, Cloe Inches.

Big's younger brother, Medium Son (called Meed), narrates the story. In many ways more capable than Big — he has a steady job making caskets, for example — he is nevertheless jealous of his brother's exploits. And he is secretly in love with Cloe, too.

Then come a series of attempts to blow up or burn up the Cleveland bridge and a slick, fast-talking new arrival who also has eyes for Cloe. By the end of the story, Big has raced a steamboat up the river and the two towns agree to become one.

Beatty gives Meed a wonderful voice that makes his words fun to read and then reread. Each page in the novel has its own title, and there are several illustrations along the way. It's just a delight from beginning to end. ( )

Really not sure what I think of this one. It's based on events that occurred in 1837 at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River--that's Cleveland and its then-neighbor and rival Ohio City--but it reads like a fantasy. Or perhaps an allegory. Or a myth. Or a cartoon.

The characters are decidedly cartoonish. I expect some of them are based on real Clevelanders, though I don't know Ohio history well enough to verify that. I do know enough to realize that some of the events described are drawn from history.

All that said, the story's told well if you can master the mangled English and oddly formatted dialog, and manages to be both funny and tragic. As I said at the beginning: I really don't know how to think of this novel.

And a favorite paragraph I want to quote:

"In 1796 Connecticut surveyors come through said that there ought to be a town called Cleveland. They did not bother any with making the town, only with drawing it on their maps. The first Settlers found the place full of discouragements, such as moschitos, ague, and poorly behaved wildlife wanting chastisement."

Yup. That's how I understand it. While Meed (the narrator) doesn't mention it, the leader of the surveyors was Moses Cleaveland; one of his "a"s went missing somewhere along the line. ( )

This is the tale of a bigger-than-real-life figure known as Big Son, as opposed to his little brother, Medium Son (also known as Meed), who narrates the story. If you think of a mythological figure of the American frontier like Paul Bunyan or Mike Fink, you’re very much in the same neighborhood as Big. Remember, this was the frontier and expectations were high and many thought anything was possible. The story takes place on the banks of the Cuyahoga River, where Ohio City sat on the western bank, before it was incorporated into its sister city Cleveland, sitting on the eastern shore.

Many of the other characters in this fable-like story are also bigger-than-life, be it for: accomplishments, exploits, deceit and fraud, heavy drinking, or fornicating. There are also the many pious and hard-working folks of both cities. Meed is learning to tell a tale and it becomes unclear at times just what Big was able to do. Clear a wide swath of forest in a short time, sure. Race against a steamboat named Radish by swimming down the river, sure. Even winning that race after the boiler, boat, and pilot disappear in a huge explosion. Or build a huge bridge across the Cuyahoga in record time, sure. Though the bridge did soon collapse. Yes, Big was huge and strong and kind, but not overly intelligent or lucky. “At four and twenty he had the bones of a man but the demeanor of a boy still.” This following passage shows Big’s kindness and smarts and luck. “There was the time he had fallen through the roof of the Episcopal house during a wedding—but only while retrieving a kite for some children. In fairness to Big, that roof were not carpentered well and he had been after a good deed.”

The book tells many stories about the people around Big and the area, but the myth of the big man wore on this reader. Maybe I couldn’t get the simplistic image of a Paul Bunyan comic out of my mind, because this always bigger-than-life story seemed to be rather small after all. Many times, the book tells the story of a rich businessman building the first bridge to connect the sister cities, without any permission and doing it all just the way he wants it done. Hostilities about Mr. Clark’s bridge have people (especially a man named Dog) blowing it up and burning parts of it down, over and over again.

I requested this advance reader’s copy, and I always feel guilty to give a bad review when a publisher has been so kind as to offer me a free book to review, but an honest review is an honest review. I love a good fable, but this book wasn’t crisp and impressive, but more muddled and wrapping too many nuances around each other. Occasionally a line would stand out oddly on its own, like the following. “December in Ohio is not a handsome month.” I like that Big was conflicted, that he did so many huge, impressive things, but he could never figure out how to make a living. There was humor all through this rollicking story, but my mind would just wander away after another cartoonish big event happened and the author was regrouping for the next. I had already started this book several times and stalled out, so I must conclude that this is just not the book for me, but I’m sure some will like it, possibly readers from Cleveland. ( )

This novel reads like the old Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill tales of the past. It all centers on a time when two cities were divided by the Cuyahoga River (Cleveland and Ohio City and their eventual union). The main characters are Big, Meed (for Medium) and their sister Chloe. There are many other unique characters and tall tales along the way. I love the tongue and cheek way Beatty tells his yarns. Being from Ohio I really conne cted with this book. ( )

It might've been a little higher than three stars, but, there were some text effects that weren't reproduced correctly in the ebook version and I feel I might have missed some of the fun... ( )