Fellow Traveler

A novel melding the southern literary family drama with a Grateful Dead-inspired neuvo-hippy path of self-discovery, Fellow Traveler follows the journey of Z, an aging, shiftless, Gen X wastrel in search of meaning, if not actual identity--Ashton Tobias Zemp goes by many names, as did other 'flower children' when on tour following legendary 60s band Jack O'Roses around the country. Years after the death of Rose Partland, the Jerry Garcia-like figurehead at the center of the pop cultural phenomenon that the band and its colorful followers had become, Z returns to South Carolina, the land of his birth, to recover from the loss of his marriage, his best friend Brian, and worst of all, and sense of self or purpose--this, a crisis much worse than the loss of a famous rock star someone's never even known . . . right?