A HERO DREAMS

In Ristau’s coming-of-age debut novel, a young boy, distraught over his father’s death, has trouble fitting in at summer camp, where he has unsettling visions and is comforted by a disembodied voice.

By 1976, as America celebrates its bicentennial, 10-year-old Ricky Williamson hasn’t quite recovered from losing his father two years ago. He’s prone to dreams and visions of tragic events, including some that he knows have already happened (such as a train accident) and others that are unfamiliar. Ricky is also less than thrilled when his mother announces that he and his 9-year-old little brother, Danny, will spend five weeks at a summer camp, six hours away from their hometown of South Orange, New Jersey. Danny, a talented baseball player, has no problem making friends, but it’s not as easy for Ricky. Soon, he’s torn between sticking his neck out for a frequently bullied new friend, Miles Romano, and keeping to himself. He finds solace in a voice in his head, which he thinks could be an angel that he saw after nearly drowning at the age of 4. “Have faith,” the voice repeatedly assures him. And faith he’ll surely need as he confronts his fears and suffers a terrible trauma. Ristau’s tale poignantly conveys Ricky’s struggle; the narration, by an older Ricky looking back on his past, retains the persistent and naïve hopefulness of his younger self: “Maybe, just maybe, I could belong to his group.” The scenes of Ricky seeing or hearing his angel, and sometimes his father, are profound but sorrowful. His real-life interactions, too, alternate between effectively upbeat moments and others that are outright depressing, as when Ricky feels that he somehow deserves his misfortunes. Though an early vision boldly validates the protagonist’s dreamlike images (with a future historical event that readers will recognize), the final act is more ambiguous. By the end, Ricky makes a decision that, while offering very little resolution, perfectly sets the stage for a continuing series.

A sad but laudable story of a boy who endures more than he should have to bear.