Into the Fire

Travis Thrasher is one of my favorite authors. I love his writing. I do. I love that he does different things in style like use stream of consciousness in the middle of dialogue or scenes. His voice is his own, identifiable, and, yes, usually angsty, but so real. Unique. Gratifying for this reader.

Sky Blue was published by Moody Publishers in 2007, and it’s vintage Travis Thrasher. The basic storyline is difficult to pinpoint, the risk of revealing too much ever present. I have to say this novel reminded me of Chris Fabry’s Dogwood only because the hints of where it’s going are so subtle you’re supposed to miss them. And like Dogwood I’m not sure I “approve” of the ending, but the journey is well worth the trip through the pages. And even that journey is part of the book’s experience.

The chapters of this book are titles of famous novels and the main character, Colin Scott, is a cynical literary agent at a top firm. When the story opens, he and his wife Jennifer, who designs costumes for movies, have been unsuccessful in starting a family, and this struggle weighs on their relationship. Jennifer decides she needs time and space and leaves Colin to work on a film, only this time she doesn’t know for sure when she’ll return. Colin is in the process of losing clients and hating most of his authors and their self-seeking drivel. With the lack of a family issue presiding over his melancholy and his wife’s frustration and pain, he’s lost the fire for his work.

When Jennifer finally returns with a tentative hope for their marriage, at Colin’s insistence, the couple takes off for time together in Cancun. His only work-related chore for their visit is to read a novel by his agency’s top bestselling author. They arrive in soaking rain and the bad weather hangs around them like dread until their final time there when Jen elects to go parasailing.

This is a story of love, loss, struggle, and pain. Told from Colin’s first person often snipey and arrogant point of view, we watch him deteriorate while scaling the sheer cliffs of depression before plunging off the deep end of utter despair. Tossed into the strange mix of emotions he experiences two wannabe authors who use opposite tactics to attempt to get his representation. Faith issues surface, but he wards them off with a stubborn rebellion. When reality finally claims him back from his self-imposed exile, life embraces him in a fullness he only dreamed.

The title Sky Blue holds dual meanings. The publishing picture painted in the pages of this story lays bare the potential ugliness in a business that can of course be all about the money. Travis does a masterful job of capturing the cynicism and cutthroat breed of some people in the biz plus depicting Colin’s struggle with the common problem of managing work and family and being able to define what’s truly important in his life.

If there’s a weakness in this story, it’s Jen. Her fading in and out without reasonable explanations or a desire to arrive at—or to insist upon—concrete evaluations of who they are and what they intend to do in their relationship frustrated me. However, since the story was told through the eyes of her husband and his skewed observations of so many things, it also fit the storyline which I know sounds like a contradiction. You’d have to read the novel to understand this dichotomy.

I’ve read a couple of Travis’s novels that I didn’t like, but I always enjoy the way he tells the story. He’s a favorite, and Sky Blue presents one of those stories that lingers after you read the final page. I might not have liked certain elements of the story in the final evaluation, but I loved the journey and the writing to get to “The End”.

Father, you know the challenges Travis faces. You’ve given him perseverance and an undaunted spirit. May you be his ultimate provision, hope, and inspiration for all he does. Continue to bless his life and stories. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.