Book review: Despite memoir look, novel worth a read

Book Review

"The Summit Sojourners"

By William J. Ridley

North Star Press of St. Cloud Inc.

192 pages, $23.95

A young man leaps off a cliff into the sea to avoid being caught by authorities after an altercation with his girlfriend's brother.

It's a dramatic beginning for a book that at first glance looks like it might be someone's dry memoirs.

"The Summit Sojourners" is an entertaining fictional story, written by William Ridley, a former Fargoan living in St. Paul.

One may wonder why it's so entitled, since the story doesn't reach Summit Avenue in St. Paul until halfway through. Did the author pick the title first and then work from there?

Perhaps the grace of that street inspired Ridley as he was writing. The story begins in Ireland, where the young man, Matthew, survives the leap from the cliff. He goes to America, changes his name to Hugh and has another life.

Now years later, Hugh learns his girlfriend's father has died, so he returns to Ireland to find his girlfriend has also died, having given birth to their daughter.

His family has presumed him dead, but the parish priest recognizes Matthew and has more bad news -- his 22-year-old daughter is missing.

Hugh hires a private investigator to help him search for Kate, who has gone looking for relatives now that she's alone in the world.

Kate comes to America and ultimately finds relatives in St. Paul -- her father's aunt and her family -- who generously take her in.

With a mystery story, it's easy to let on too much or not enough. Ridley has found a good balance of what clues to drop and where to end a scene to create tension.

Although a slim novel, it's compelling to read and the story moves along at a good pace. Readers might want to bring along a dictionary for some of the larger words that might need definition.

Another thing that's difficult to do well is insert a real location in a fictional story. An author can sometimes go overboard on physical descriptions of those places to the exception of all others, but Ridley is fair in his treatment of Summit Avenue.

His description of Ireland is rather disjointed, using stream of consciousness to talk about the sights and sounds. Sometimes that can be overused.

What isn't overused is Ridley's descriptions of life in the 1880s, which captures the pace of people living then. It was a slower, more genteel time, and Ridley conveys that feeling without letting the story bog down.

"Virginia noted that Will seemed uncharacteristically nervous as he spun his straw boater in his hands and looked down at his highly-polished Oxfords. A gaudy plaid vest under gray waistcoat and over a starched white shirt, closed at the throat and tied with a narrow gold cord, completed his ensemble. His bony, clean-shaven face was crowned by straight brown hair, brilliantined and center-parted."

Ridley also explains through one character why a woman would let her fiance's suspected infidelity go unmentioned.

"I want a whole husband, not a pariah. Can't have his honored status sullied. Mine would be soiled right along with his. We'd both become pitiful laughingstocks and never recover from the humiliation and scorn. When I take his name as his wife, I become part of him and all that he is to people. My reputation becomes inseparable from his. I intend it to be immaculate!"

The character also gives her brother a warning about women:

"But don't underestimate us or consider us helpless. We're not. And I will give you some advice, woman to man. When you create enemies as you go through life, make sure that they're men. Because you, my lovable brother, will have no chance at all in coping with a vengeful female."

There's a man who's had some dealings with more than a few women in his life.

Readers can contact Forum staff writer Gail Gabrielson at (701) 241-5536