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"Well, in a nutshell," said Jim; "the book was about a motorcycle
trip. The guy doing the narration, the father, was taking Chris, his
son, cross-country on the back of his motorcycle. They were traveling
with two friends, John and Sylvia, who were also riding a motorcycle.
Most of the drama took place in the head of the narrator. He was
trying to put the pieces of his traumatic past back together. Because
of a nervous breakdown, the narrator's old personality was
institutionalized, and given electric shock treatment. After his
hospitalization, his original personality—Phaedrus, the English
Professor, was replaced with the personality of the narrator of the
story. Remembering the `how's,' `what's,' `where's,' and `why's' of
the world-shaking truth that the old personality, Phaedrus, felt
compelled to communicate to the world was what most of the story was
about. A good deal of the tension, however, came from Chris's
relationship with his father because, according to the narrator, Chris
was probably in the first stages of insanity himself. At the end of
the book, the narrator and Chris confront each other and Phaedrus, the
old personality, merged with the narrator's personality. Since Chris
was more than happy to get his old dad back, the book ended on a happy
note. Well, that's a sketch of the book, but as you know, there was a
whole lot more to it."
"Yeah, I know," I said, "that's what I'm interested in, the
philosophy stuff—the `big revelation' Phaedrus was trying to
communicate. What was it?"
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