[Nov. 5 2026]–Author James Dodson did indeed return to Brattleboro to kick off the 25th anniversary year of the Brattleboro Literary Festival, as mentioned in my previous post, and he did it in grand style. I had the honor of introducing him, and the video of the event is now up on the Festival’s YouTube channel.
It was a terrific Festival this year, with all venues regularly packed. All of this year’s sessions should gradually appear, in collaboration with Brattleboro Community TV. Keep an eye on our overall YouTube site, follow us on Facebook or Instagram, or sign up for our newsletter.
Dodson is a charismatic and gregarious fellow. He took the floor and didn’t let up for forty minutes. He’s the master of the tangent, so it’s a bit of a wild ride; after awhile he can seem a little like the polymath who, if you ask him the time, tells you the history of Switzerland. He even found time for an extended Irish shaggy dog joke.
It was a lively introduction to his book, which is a more sedate though no less lively trip down The Road That Made America: A Modern Pilgrim’s Journey on the Great Wagon Road (Simon & Schuster, $32; trade paperback, $22). The book is an engaging blend of history, memoir and travelogue, and I recommend it unreservedly.
A note about the reference I made about novelist John Gardner. I was careful to say Gardner “purportedly” claimed there were only two plots in literature:
1. A man goes on a trip.
2. A stranger rides into town.
To which I added my wife’s addendum: “If a man goes on a trip, eventually he’s a stranger who comes into town, so there’s really only one plot.”
I’d heard this story a long time ago and never felt any great need to affirm it. Until now. It seems that Gardner never actually said this, but he did use it as a creative prompt in the fiction classes he taught—telling students to write the opening of a novel with one of those starting points. He notes the exercise in his 1984 book The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers. Fun to ponder in any case.
Dodson’s book is nonfiction, but it definitely depicts a man constantly going on a trip and repeatedly being a stranger who rides into town. The crucial fact is that for all of us armchair travelers it works beautifully.
Dodson did unleash one whopper when right at the beginner of his talk he said that of the two of us, I’m the better golfer. This is unbridled fantasy. Out on the course this year I was barely better than dead men. But I didn’t bother to correct him.
This post first appeared in my Substack, Tom’s Bedellicatessan.
