Into the Fire

(First posted on 7/8/2008 as "Wind River . . . escape to forgiveness").

The second leg of this week’s CFBA tour once again gave me the great pleasure of reading one of my favorite authors. I’m a big fan of Tom Morrisey’s work from his Beck Easton adventure novels to these last two: In High Places and Wind River. I’m not going to cover his credentials here, but they’re numerous and impressive both in real life and in the writing life.

Wind River is a story about the relationship between a much older man who takes a boy fly fishing, teaching him the ins and outs of catching trout and traversing the Wind River Station high country. One day that young boy who became an excellent fisherman becomes a Marine, gets married, leaves the Marine Corps, and years later receives a letter from that old man to accompany him on one last fishing trip to the Wind River.

Having sustained a devastating experience before leaving the Corps, Tyler Perkins cannot bring himself to share it with his wife. Not only can he not share the experience with her, he can’t even share himself with her. So when the invitation comes in the mail, she encourages him to go, knowing that he needs to.

When Ty arrives at the home of his old friend Soren and his wife Edda, he sees first hand how aged the man has become, still in the long aftermath of a hip replacement, but raring to head for the hills. When the man has a few senior moments before their departure, Ty gets some parting words from Edda, and off they go. Once the two men reach the lodge at the base of the Wind River Station, Soren has come alive and appears to be in his element, rejecting all efforts at assistance or to be confined to settling for the lower level trek Ty thinks appropriate. After some tension between Ty and an ex-girlfriend who now runs the lodge, the two men set out for their adventure.

This is simply the story of two men, one younger, one older, who need to be set free from a past, one distant and one not so distant, with which they seem unable to reckon. Being men of faith but now estranged from their relationships with the One who once set them free, they need to set things straight somehow, and although neither one particularly wants to share their downfalls with the other, out there among the majestic beauty, the rainbow and brown trout, the rugged weather, and God’s own sky, creatures, and elements, they learn they have no real choice but to do so.

Tom Morrisey takes the reader through the assortment of flies, the casting, and the throw backs and catches of fish, lets him see the beauty, smell the clean air, feel the rain, get warmed by the fire ring, and admire the skills of those who know the streams, rivers, forests, and high country as if it’s their own backyard. In the process of doing what these two people have always done when together, confession seeps out into their nights under the shooting stars.

The first chapter is much like a prologue, taking place 16 years before the main story. The second chapter precedes the present day by a few years setting the stage for the current thrust of the main story. There are pages and pages of dialogue toward the end of the story, but it’s entertaining and logical and with a true voice. There are few extras included in this novel which is lean by my standards, a few only mildly addressed conflicts left to the imagination, but the two main characters are easy to visualize and fall for and ultimately we hope they arrive at workable solutions. The ending gives us what we need.

An interesting side note for writers . . . Tom Morrisey does next to no marketing as far as I can tell. Over a year ago he used to occasionally contribute to the now defunct "Charis Connection". Although he has the current news of this new book on his website, a lot of the information on this site is old. He warns that e-mails may or may not be answered due to his being off cave diving or some such adventurous thing, but he’s even less of a marketer than Frank Peretti who gave a decent try at it for being a successful, somewhat reclusive, basically-working-on-other-projects author.

If you want to read a novel which transports you to the haven of the higher country where a river and lake run heavy with all sizes of trout and learn from an expert along your journey, Wind River will take you far away from the hustle and crowded activities of daily life. In that journey you’ll probably find something which inspires you to find forgiveness, not only from the Lord, but from yourself as well.

Father, I would ask that you would continue to watch over Tom Morrisey in his adventurous lifestyle. You have given him a multitude of talents, and I pray his writing would continue to offer your heart to readers. Bless his faith as he pursues those directions you have chosen for him to follow. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.