Richard Paul Evans's "Walking On Water"...Finishing The Journey

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Reading Richard Paul Evans's The Walk series reminded me of how we watch television shows nowadays. We binge watch. And we can experience an entire season of emotions in a relatively short period of time. I felt this the same way after finishing Book Five in The Walk series, Walking on Water. It was exhausting!

Walking on Water concludes the fictional walk across the country by Alan Christoffersen, a man tormented by his pasts. Since leaving Seattle after the death of his wife and the lose of his business, the man faced death (several times...), love, betrayal, and heartache. And the strange thing about these books is, I felt like I faced them, too. That's the sign of a good literary work and a talented author. If you've read the books, you know what I'm talking about.

What I've found most interesting is a reaction I get when I mention to others The Walk series. A big smile crosses their faces and they say how much they loved the series. At the end of Alan's story, the author gives us a look into how this fictional journey, and the author's real cross country journey while researching the book, affected his life. He made the trek with his daughter and you can tell from his words and the emotion with which he speaks, that journey will be something he cherishes, something he'll remember the rest of his life.

The Walk series is unlike anything I've ever read before. Many have written epic tales using millions of words. The scope of their stories is only eclipsed by the universes in which they're set. But what I loved about this series was its simplicity. It's something I could do, or most of us could do. The story many times reminds us that a lot of people have thought about or even wanted to do it. I suppose it's the Ernest Hemingway gene that some act upon and others ignore. But Evans did it (albeit in a car...) and Alan Christoffersen did it. And because a man dedicated his time and talents to writing this story down, we can experience the journeys of these two men, one real, the other fiction. Both have come away better men.

* Photo used without permission from: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18144105-walking-on-water?ac=1&from_search=true