It’s hard to describe this lyrical novel with 70 very short chapters.  The title comes from an area in southwestern Wisconsin missed by the last glaciers.  Therefore, they did not scour the land and leave glacial deposits of rock, clay, sand, and silt–called drift.  The setting is the fictional unincorporated village of Words, Wisconsin.  There is a main character who interacts with a score of other characters.  We seem to know more about their lives than about the life of the main character until the end of the book when we realize that all our lives are tremendously influenced by our friends and acquaintances.  We are more community than individual.  There isn’t much of a plotline, but there are many powerful short stories.  Some of the stories are self-contained and some are open-ended.   This is the 2010 All Iowa Reads selection.   It took ten years to write this book and it shows in the elegant language and symbolism and depth of observation.  The more I think about it, the better I like this book.  There are some passages that are so beautiful or interesting, that I’ve read them over and over again.   Here’s a great one-liner: “New is just old rearranged.”