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I read the short novel “Sterling Bridge” by Chad Robert Parker in two evenings. It had been sitting in my books-to-read pile under a couple of historical fiction books I received as Christmas gifts. But they were really long, so “Sterling Bridge” made the top of the pile – and I’m glad it did.
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The setting is Tooele, Utah, as the Great Depression approaches. The story revolves around football, high school, small-town Utah prejudice in the late 1920s, and a real-life hero by the name of Sterling Harris. It’s his biography with some fictional details thrown in to make a readable story.
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Readers meet Coach Harris as he arrives on the first day of school. Because we read the back of the book, we know that “Tooele, Utah, is a town divided. Tensions are already running high with the Depression making money tight and jobs scarce. But then Sterling Harris comes to town, a new coach with a daring plan to turn things around and to find victory for his football team and unity for Tooele.”
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I also knew he would win the 1929 Utah state football championship because I always look at the photos at the end of a book.
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If you read the book knowing it’s a film novel, a story he already wrote a film script for, it helps. You can hear a director in the background of some of the scenes in the book yelling, “Fade out on 14-year-old narrator Joe Lacy and bring Sterling Harris into the spotlight.”
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This is the first published novel for Utah author Chad Robert Parker. He describes his 15-year writing journey on his blog at chadrobertparker.com and explains why this is a film novel of 126 pages. “One of the first things I realized about writing was that there was no way I could write a good idea down fast enough. While my mind thinks in longer formats, my attention span is about as long as the length of a movie,” he said.
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Parker said during our interview that there are film producers looking at his screenplay.
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“Sterling Bridge began with an inspirational person, inspired an inspirational book, and is already of interest to a few movie producers who expect it could inspire many more through film. Through my writing, I hope to introduce characters such as Sterling Harris, with his old school values and tenacious ways, to a whole new generation,” he said.
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“Sterling Bridge” is available online at Amazon.com, Books&Things.com and Barnes&Noble.com. You can also purchase a copy at Cedar Fort Publishing in Springville.
