"Bright's Passage" (The Dial Press), by Josh Ritter: Even a gifted songwriter cannot necessarily sustain a compelling tale for the length of a novel.
Luckily, Josh Ritter is an exception. He called his debut work of fiction a "short little comedy." Yes, it's short — less than 200 pages — but it's more poignant than funny, and it reads like a fable or a myth, but without any pat conclusions or preachy morality.
"Bright's Passage" tells the story of a World War I veteran who returns home to West Virginia and his young bride. After his wife dies in childbirth, Henry Bright cares for his newborn son, seeks the company of a goat and allows himself to be led — both in life-altering decisions and escaping a deadly wildfire — by an angel who may or may not be his talking horse.
It sounds far-fetched — and it is — but under Ritter's capable first-time authorship, it becomes a charming, sweet and highly readable novel.
Ritter is an economical writer — not wasting a single word or sentence. His imagery is bold, tantalizing, and he never indulges the easy, well-worn route of description. For example, in one of his battle scenes, Henry and a fellow soldier must move his wounded sergeant out of harm's way. "It was terrible ground to carry a man over, and Carlson's feet shambled loosely against the pebble and debris as his legs began the process of forgetting how to walk."
For all his book's strengths, Ritter makes a few minor missteps — like Bright keeping his ailing infant alive by feeding him finger dips of goat's milk — but they're not enough to mar the novel or keep readers from looking forward to his next book.