Peter Ferry, narrator in Travel Writing, is a high school English teacher and part-time travel writer. In an effort to inspire his somewhat apathetic students, he tells them a story about an incident that happened to him on his way home. Peter was driving behind an obviously impaired driver. When they reached a stop light, there was a brief moment of eye contact with the stunning woman driver, then the other vehicle sped away and Peter witnessed the deadly crash of the other car and the death of its driver Lisa Kim. He believes he may have been able to prevent the car crash and embarks on a mission to discover Lisa Kim’s history and what may have led to her accident. The mission soon turns to into an obsession which threatens to destroy his job and his relationship. Peter attends Lisa Kim’s funeral. meets members of her family under false pretenses, searches for an ex-boyfriend, and investigates her doctor who seems to have somehow contributed to her death. The book not only tells the story of Peter’s preoccupation, it also is s study into the disintegration of the relationship with his long-term girlfriend mixed with discussions with his friends and flashbacks to his some of his travels.
When Peter’s students recognize the name of a counselor and some other characters, they ask Peter whether the story is true. Peter explains that some but not all of the elements are based on facts.
“I don’t understand,” says Nick.
“Well, it just works better that way,” I say.
“I’m not sure I agree,” says the girl whose hair is blue today, “and I definitely don’t buy this hypnotism stuff. That sounds hokey to me. Sounds like Seinfeld or something.”
“But that’s the part that’s true,” I say. “Gene really does use hypnotism and he really did use it on me.”
“Now let’s see,” says Nick. “You put something in that isn’t true because it works better, and you put something in that doesn’t work because it’s true. I’m not sure you can have it both ways.”
“Sure I can; it’s my story,” I say.
Sounds like a pretty straight-forward book. Then you realize that Peter Ferry, author of Travel Writing, is also a high school English teacher and part-time travel writer. This brings up the question – is the story of Lisa Kim based on an experience of the author? Did he actually jeopardize his relationships? Did he tell this story to one of his English classes.
Travel Writing is a truly creative work. I was caught up in the story and caught up in the question of how blurry is the line between fact and fiction.
You can listen to a great interview with Peter Ferry about writing novels and non-fiction at worldhum.com and read an interview with examiner.com.
I would like to thank the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.
Twitter: WellReadReviews
19. Oct, 2009 at 5:39 pm #
That book sounds really deep.. but truly interesting!
.-= Allison´s last blog ..Mailbox Monday #Meme =-.
I didn’t think this book was great, but it was interesting.