"So, what does he do? In the great American tradition, Markovits' wayward Layward hits the road. After dropping off his daughter at college, he heads west into his past and what may be his sunset. America's literary highways are not quite bumper-to-bumper, but they are plenty crowded with middle-aged runaways fleeing lives that increasingly feel like a bad fit. Many are women, including the heroines of Anne Tyler's Ladder of Years and Miranda July's All Fours."
"We meet Tom and Amy on the cusp of empty nesting. This is not a happy prospect. Tom has been biding his time for the last dozen years, since he learned of Amy's affair with a guy she knew from synagogue. This happened back when their daughter, Miriam, was six, and her older brother, Michael, was 12. Their marriage has not improved in the intervening years."
Tom Layward, 55, faces empty nesting, faltering health, and a failing marriage while his law school position is unstable. He carries unresolved pain from his wife Amy's affair discovered twelve years earlier, which has never healed. With his youngest child leaving for college, Tom feels blocked by undigested emotional material and chooses to leave home and drive west into his past. The journey prompts reflections on midlife restlessness, American road narratives, and the crowded literary tradition of middle-aged runaways. Marital strain, parental transitions, aging, and the search for meaning propel the narrative.
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