A once best-selling novelist, arrogant and self-centered, is forced by
his publishing contract to publicize his new work, starting with a
one-week book tour along the West Coast. Christopher Lathom was a young
man when his first book, universally hailed as a masterpiece, first
appeared. It was so successful, in fact, that he has been living off the
royalties for the past thirty years until eventually he was forced to
sell of his own papers to survive and write. Now he is largely
forgotten. Living in a coastal town in California, he has become
somewhat of a recluse, hanging out in coffee shops and bars; not quite
rejecting the world, but having no real use for it either. Finally, with
the help of a substantial advance, Lathom has completed his second
novel. He is quite confident that the public will think it worth the
wait and he will again be the toast of the literary world. Leery of both
bookstores and fans, Lathom is steadfast in his refusal to take the
publicity journey laid out for him. But events beyond anyone's control
ultimately render going on a road trip a better idea than staying put.
The author is assigned a young, studious media escort to drive him up
and down the west coast of the USA. It will soon become the book tour
from hell. Poor attendance and a series of screw-ups render the
writer--already petrified to be outside his ritual comforts--humiliated
and desolate. This is exacerbated by an unexpected frivolous lawsuit
brought against him by an unscrupulous serial litigant. They are joined
along the way by Jasmine, the niece of an executive from Lathom's
publisher. She seems wise beyond her years, but to Lathom she is just
one more indignity that he must endure. As the disastrous, often
comical, odyssey continues, the author is convinced he cannot continue
the tour--or his life. He is at his wit's end, but is soon to realize
that the path to personal redemption is offered by his two young
companions, if he can accept it and overcome his fears and regrets.
Jasmine suggests a mystical path, combined with a more spiritual
approach to living. The media escort hopes to become a writer and turns
to Lathom to give him direction. But when he inadvertently reveals a
secret of his own, it is Lathom who must contemplate a way forward. This
is a road-trip of unrelenting conflict and surprising twists and turns.
Can the novelist Christopher Lathom become the hero of his own story or
is he just a remnant of past glory?
