ON THE CUSP - Erik Erickson

Someone is trying to kill Andreas . . . or are they? His psychiatrist has doubts, and so does Vanessa, his dancer-turned-actress girlfriend. After a series of seemingly close encounters, the 25-year-old high school teacher ditches his job and flees the Big Apple on a Morocco-bound freighter. From there, along with a shifting cast of fellow travelers, skeptical friends, and globe-trotting eccentrics, he embarks on a drug-and-alcohol-fueled trip-of-a-lifetime throughout North Africa, Europe, the U.K., and Ireland. Manfully, he tries to keep his sanity (and his vows to Vanessa), but the scent of impending demise and temptation persists. Part murder mystery, part sprawling travelogue, ON THE CUSP is at times devastatingly funny - even raunchy - but always a seat-of-the-pants romp through the waning days of the "American Century," as Andreas tries to outrun his (imagined?) fate. The pace never falters.

"I'm sure it was just the sailors trying to get you to the doctor," Cris says. "And I repeat, old buddy, why would anyone want to kill you? Get real. Your jokes aren't that bad. It must be embarrassing, but face reality, you're lucky you didn't kill yourself. You've been drinking a lot."   

- from ON THE CUSP