All Honest Pilgrims

“Children come a-berrying, railroad men taking a Sunday morning walk in clean shirts, fishermen and hunters, poets and philosophers; in short, all honest pilgrims, who came out to the woods for freedom's sake, and really left the village behind…”From Walden by Henry David Thoreau.

All Honest Pilgrims takes the reader on several journeys to Concord, Massachusetts, specifically Walden Pond, with several characters all interrelated but very different. Lucy is a chocolatier from New Jersey who always tries to do the right thing and see the good in people even if it hurts her in the long run. Billy, her smart but complicated lawyer husband despises her optimism and is hell bent on making her as miserable as he is. Rico, a biker, doesn’t look like a romantic, but truly is. That is evident with his relationship to Diana who he literally brings back to life. Through her divorced years, Lucy encounters Ted, who lost his soul, and Chris, a country singer/songwriter from Lubbock, Texas who comes to the pond searching for what's missing in his life.

Spanning the early 1980s through 911, to the present pandemic, it follows these “pilgrims”, united by their love of Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau quotes guide and motivate each character throughout their journey. They either are inspired by, or misinterpret it to their detriment. Each character has a different issue they are dealing with; bullying ,anorexia, commitment phobia, fear of love, an abusive relationship to name a few. Each chapter is told by that character in their own unique voice. Their differences are less important than their similarities. Through the words of Thoreau and the water of the pond, they each find their answer. For some the answer comes just in time. For others, it is too late.