The River

by Peter Heller

There’s always relief in committing to a decision, even when there’s no choice.

Few people had the luck to die in the prime of life in full appreciation of all the goodness therein. Leave it at that, he thought. As good a place as any.

“Paulson said there was a principle in aesthetics: the more you prettify something, the more you risk undermining its value. Its essential value.”

Wynn thought that if wolves sang, and coyotes, and elk and birds, and wind, and we, too, it was probably in response to a music we didn’t know we could hear.