The Righteous Road
Short stories by Ryan Shoemaker
Two teenagers with rockstar ambitions get the thrill of a lifetime when they rescue Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain from a crowd of rabid fans. A high school math teacher convinces his brightest student to escape the poverty and violence of the inner city by enlisting in the army. A pious bishop receives an unexpected visit from Jesus. With equal parts humor and pathos, Ryan Shoemaker’s stories explore an intricate map of private roads and the Mormon travelers there—the young and old, the pharisaical and free spirits, the believers and nonbelievers, the dreamers and realists—whose journeys lead them to surprising destinations.
KIRKUS REVIEW
Sharp, funny, and perceptive, these stories will resonate far beyond their target audience.
Shoemaker’s playful collection of short stories features members of the LDS Church in surprising situations.
In his opening story, “Come as You Are,” the author introduces readers to an early-’90s teen named Toby who finds rock idol Kurt Cobain hiding in the back of his car. They end up jamming together and eating pizza with Toby’s dad, who promptly asks Cobain about his thoughts regarding Mormonism—much to the discomfort of Toby, who lied about the musician’s interest. Beneath the slapstick setup is the tension between secular culture and the tenets of Mormonism; the author develops this idea further in the story “Light Departure,” which depicts a Mormon at the end of his mission who must come to terms with an African immigrant who comes out to him as gay. In “The Water Between Us,” a young father flounders to find his footing and provide for his family in “the way we’d been taught and raised at church and at home,” while in the moving story “The Righteous Road,” two teenagers waver between activism and faith before ultimately choosing different paths. Stories like “Adam and Lilith. And Eve” and “Barry Dodson: The God Journals” demonstrate Shoemaker’s knack for satire, spinning cosmically absurd setups into one deeply funny joke after another. (“It’s nice,” the first woman in all of creation says, evaluating the Garden of Eden like it was any suburban home. “But all the green’s, like, a little overwhelming. Don’t you think?”) Some stories, notably “Parley Young: One Mormon Life,” about a church elder who abuses his power, feel rushed, striving to tackle many ideas within a short amount of space, but the author’s clever eye for detail and the prickly humor in the voices he brings to life consistently draw the reader back in. In stories like “In That Classroom” and the titular entry, he shows his range, focusing on specific, emotionally charged, and well-observed moments that crescendo to powerful revelations that are sure to connect with all readers, Mormon or otherwise.
Sharp, funny, and perceptive, these stories will resonate far beyond their target audience.
PRAISE FOR THE RIGHTEOUS ROAD
“The stories in The Righteous Road show off Ryan Shoemaker’s impressive range, from the dramatic to the satiric—he is a writer who can make you feel deeply in one story and laugh aloud in the next, a rare gift.” —T.C. Boyle, author of The Tortilla Curtain and Blue Skies
“Family, faith, loss, love and hope—these are the essential elements of Ryan Shoemaker’s beautiful stories. A troubled, reckless father, Kurt Cobain, Adam and Eve—Shoemaker weaves gritty reality with the myths of our most ancient stories illuminated by a contemporary imagination that is sure-footed, honest, and unflinching—all while infusing his sentences with the kind of understated humor that you have to earn by living with an open, compassionate heart. Bravo.” —Jason Brown, author of Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work: Stories and Character Witness: A Memoir
“Shoemaker is one of my favorite short story writers, and this book exemplifies all that makes that statement true. He hooked me with the interplay of LDS culture, our scriptural underpinnings, and our foibles and peculiarities, handled with nuance, fantastic writing, and style. I relished every single story. There was not a miss in the entire collection. Some of the stories left me laughing out loud. Another left me pondering for days the way we deceive ourselves about our own motivations and actions. But all of them captured me with their excellence and fun. Don’t miss this collection. It is a treasure trove of meaning and delight.” —Steven L. Peck, author of Heike’s Void and A Short Stay in Hell