Travel Writing

Pete is a high school teacher and master storyteller, and we drop right into the story as he weaves his class a tale about a drunk driving crash (Lisa Kim) he witnessed and which haunts him, driving him out of his pseudo-relationship with Lydia, to house-sit for Carolyn whom he ultimately ends up dating. Interspersed are bits of his travel writing, the canoe trip through the Canadian wilderness above Minnesota filled with rain and portaging and survival skills, the Thailand excursion with Thai prostitutes picking up Western men as husbands, his grand Mexican adventures with Lydia and Charlie.

Ultimately Pete becomes obsessed by Lisa Kim's mysterious death, undergoes hypnosis and discovers that he saw a man get out of her car shortly before it crashed, discovers that the man was a family friend & psychiatrist who was treating Lisa (and also her lover), and writes this book as a way to out the psychiatrist. The final chapter was gratingly obvious and in stark contrast to the rest of the awesome book.