Letters to Eden / Saint Dunstan's Press (ePub)

What would happen if the unflinching spirit of Odysseus and the bumbling ghost of Don Quixote escaped their inky prisons to possess a listless carpenter? Imbued with the courage and madness of these adventurers, what if this youth dropped his circular saw and pursued a most secret ambition-to bicycle across the United States?

Alone.

These questions and many more are answered through his letters sent home to Eden Lane as our intrepid hero pedals across the country. At the center of Letters to Eden is the love for Mary, a woman who is both the beginning and the end of the journey-a Dulcinea spurring onward and a Penelope in whose arms rest is found.

More than a humorous daily record of cycling across America, these letters chronicle how the people of America help spur the changes necessary to love wholeheartedly, through suffering and joy alike. These many characters-ranging from watermelon-bearing Mormons, ripe for another convert, to grungy motorcycle gangs who crown a new king atop the Kancamagus Pass-fuel this journey across the country.

Camping in haunted burial grounds, sneaking across international borders, being stranded on a melting highway, all these events shape an odyssey into the heart of America. Through loneliness and joy, through grief and wonder, through car accidents and snowstorms, youth is left behind in the struggle home as a man. Letters to Eden is a map of that growth and the love inspiring it.