The Jordan Tracks [Paperback]

Steven Wise (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 27, 2005

For the small Midwestern town of California, Missouri, 1968 heralded another year when parents stared in dread at television screens sending images of soldiers mangled in Vietnam. Ernie and Christa Bates performed their daily toils, but never far from their thoughts was an only son named Aaron. The young man shared a strong Christian faith with his mother, and she prayed for him fervently, knowing that his prayers too were directed to God. But Ernie did not share their faith, could only invoke a spirit world that he knew existed, but did not trust. And while his son fought on soil half a world away, Ernie fought a grim battle in a world that he could not see.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Steven W. Wise, a graduate of the University of Missouri, is a Southern Baptist deacon and a licensed real estate appraiser. He lives and writes his stories on a wooded farm ten miles north of Columbia, Missouri, with his wife, Cathy. Wise enjoys long walks in the woods, for there, with the wind whispering in the high boughs of trees, stories sometimes come. The Jordan Tracks is his fifth novel, following Midnight, Chambers, Long Train Passing, and Chimborazo.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: AuthorHouse (January 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1420813609
• ISBN-13: 978-1420813609
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,016,392 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful Work, November 9, 2011

By 

Dan W. Peek (Columbia, MO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Jordan Tracks (Paperback)

What Daniel Woodrell's work has done for the marginal hillbilly culture of the Missouri Ozarks, this book by Steven W. Wise does for the mainstream working class culture of that region. In The Jordan Tracks, Wise expertly and accurately portrays the life of rural Ozarkers as it was in the 1960's and as it remains today. A life of low paying hard, often dangerous work at farm and factory- sustained by faith, family and friendship. Wise is a master of dialogue and description, the prose and plot are, in my opinion, flawless. The story is set near California, Missouri in the north central Ozarks. I am a fifth generation Ozarker and grew up not far from California, in Morgan County. I know the culture and Wise nails it. Dan William Peek

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful portrayal of ordinary people dealing with extraordinary pain, August 29, 2005

By 

Derek P. Gilbert "Author of The God Conspiracy" (Charleston, Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Jordan Tracks (Paperback)

Steven W. Wise sets The Jordan Tracks in the small town of California, just southwest of Columbia, Missouri. It's a part of the heartland that Wise knows well; he and his wife live on a wooded farm about ten miles north of Columbia. The novel, his fifth (including three originally published by Thomas Nelson), is peppered with references that readers in the Show-Me State will appreciate. (I've lived in Saint Louis long enough to know who wore #6 for the Cardinals, but as a native Chicagoan I'm still sore about the Brock-for-Broglio deal.)

The Jordan Tracks takes place in the fall of 1968 and follows the struggle of Ernie and Christa Bates as they anxiously await the return of their son, Aaron, from his tour of duty in Viet Nam. As with so many plans in this life, the "welcome home" pig-pickin' is put on permanent hold when the Bates are informed that Aaron has been killed.

Christa is solid in her walk with Christ, as was Aaron. Knowing that she'll be reunited with him someday helps to ease the pain, but not so with Ernie. Burdened with guilt from a terrible deed in his childhood, Ernie has never accepted the existence of a loving God. The death of his only son sends Ernie into a shell, unable even to attend Aaron's funeral. He seems barely alive, like a sputtering candle about to flicker out. Forces are at work on Ernie, just beyond the limits of perception, and Christa fights to pull her husband back from the abyss before he allows himself to be swallowed by eternal darkness.

Steven Wise paints a colorful backdrop against which plays the struggle for Ernie Bates' soul. Some may find the dialogue and the characters a bit rustic for their tastes, even corny; to them I politely suggest getting out of the city and taking a good look around. The Jordan Tracks is about ordinary people dealing with extraordinary hurt, and there are an awful lot of folks just like that out here in Flyover Country.

The friendship between Ernie and his co-workers at the local turkey processing plant, Harley Raines and "Fudd" Ledbetter, rings true. (It's obvious that Wise has some turkey processing experience in his work history.) Wise also does a fine job of developing even the secondary characters into personalities I believed and cared about. The plot moves along at a leisurely pace, but that's all right; I really enjoyed getting to know these folks.

Wise is to be commended for avoiding the stock Hollywood happy ending. While The Jordan Tracks ends on a hopeful note, strings are left hanging as strings often do in real life. God promises no tidy resolutions to all of our problems, at least not in this world.

My only criticisms of The Jordan Tracks stem, I think, from the author's choice to self-publish. There are a couple of instances where the word "drug" is used instead of "dragged". This would have been acceptable in dialogue, but it seemed out of place in a novel that is, as a whole, very well written.

A few typos can be forgiven, but one other error stuck out just a bit: Identifying the inspiration for "Fudd" Ledbetter's nickname as a character from a Disney cartoon. Most readers would correctly recognize Elmer Fudd as Bugs Bunny's nemesis in the Warner Brothers cartoons. A second set of eyes would probably have caught that minor mistake.

However, these were minor flaws that didn't distract enough from the story to bother me.

In sum, The Jordan Tracks is an engaging story of average, small town people dealing with world-sized grief. It's not for the reader who wants explosions, monsters, or exotic locations. But The Jordan Tracks may move you in ways that so-called thrillers simply can't.

4.0 out of 5 stars It moved me, I can dance to it, I give it a 9!, May 7, 2005

By 

Mr. Wayne Moran "Q and A Blogger" (St. Paul, MN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Jordan Tracks (Paperback)

I have a confession to make. Actually, I have two confessions.

- I judged a book by its cover.

- I was wrong in my judgment about the book.

You see, I received the book "The Jordan Tracks" by Steven W. Wise in the mail. I had known nothing about the story line or the author. I look at the book cover and frankly it looked cheesy. It looked like a high school student had done the cover art. My attitude toward the book immediately turned sour. I thought, "Oh no, what have I gotten myself into".

But I knew I had committed and I had a job to do, so to be faithful, I decided to gut it out and started to make my way through the book. Once I started reading I could tell that I had misjudged the book and I was pulled into a compelling tale. There were a few points in the beginning of the story where the story did not quite flow smoothly and I even got confused as to the distinction of two of the main characters, but that was quickly cleared up.

If you boil the story down to its simplest plot, it is a story of people's faith journey. The story is set in a small town in

Missouri and all of the characters on their faith journey were influenced by a young Christian soldier, Aaron Bates, who was killed in action in Vietnam in 1968.

The first character was Aaron's father, Ernie Bates, who was raised in a very difficult household and actually killed his own alcoholic father while protecting his mother from a beating. Ernie has somehow managed to make it past that terrible event in his life and build a somewhat normal life until that fateful day when he found that his son had been killed. Ernie had idolized Aaron and he was crushed when he heard the terrible news of his son's death.

The second character was Gino, a friend from Vietnam

. Gino was also raised in a difficult environment in

Chicago

. Aaron had tried to have conversations about the things of significance but Gino was just not ready to have those conversations, Until after Aaron had died.

And finally there was the lovable, affable Fudd. A simply man that worked at the turkey plant with Aaron's father. Fudd would admit to not being willing to have conversations about deeper issues. He was just not interested in spiritual matters in life. But Aaron's death had changed things for him also. That years of being influenced by Aaron and his Christian mother Christina planted seeds that were taking root.

Wise has a way of telling this story so that whatever issues of a spiritual nature would occur, I would find myself in tears. I found the situations so real, deep and compelling that it appeared that I was experiencing them for real in person. His Christian characters exuded the type of grace and love that you see so infrequently in real life but that when you do see it in a person you immediately know that it is genuine. Barron's father Ernie experienced the "pit of despond" that most of We'll never experience in life, yet for the grace of god he somehow persevere.

Wise gave me a view into the activities of the spiritual world that I have not seen since reading the Frank Peretti's books This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness . In my book that is very high praise.

In the end, some characters came to believe in Jesus and some you're not sure where they're at with their journey. That seems to be pretty typical in life, we plant some seeds and we see some sprout. That is just the way of life.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I would recommend it for you also.

Wayne M

Questions and Answers Blog