What A Trip: A Novel

by Susen Edwards

Overview

In this fast-paced coming-of-age novel we meet Fiona, an art student at a New Jersey college who is brilliant, beautiful, and struggling to find herself. Through her eyes we relive the turbulent culture of sex, drugs, and rock ’n roll, the first draft lottery since World War II, the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam, the Kent State Universityshootings, and the harsh realities of war for Americans in their early twenties.

Fiona’s best friend, Melissa, is in a dead-end relationship, pregnant, and going nowhere fast. After Melissa’s abortion, Fiona and Melissa spend a week in Florida, where they are introduced to tarot cards and the anti-war movement. Following this experience, Melissa becomes obsessed with the occult; Fiona, though intrigued, approaches the tarot cautiously, with the voice of her conservative Christian mother screaming in her head.

After Fiona’s return from Florida, she begins dating Reuben—a journalism major and political activist. Reuben decides to move to Canada to avoid the draft and encourages Fiona to accompany him. But is that really what she wants? Caught between her feelings for Reuben and her own aspirations, Fiona struggles to define herself, her artistic career, and her future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781647422851
Publisher:	She Writes Press
Publication date:	11/15/2022
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Susen Edwards is the founder and former director of Somerset School of Massage Therapy, New Jersey’s first state-approved and nationally accredited postsecondary school for massage therapy. During her tenure she was nominated by Merrill Lynch for Inc. Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award. After the successful sale of the business, she became an administrator at her local community college. She is currently secretary for the board of trustees for her town library and a full-time writer. Her passions are yoga, cooking, reading, and, of course, writing. Susen is the author of Doctor Whisper and Nurse Willow, a children’s fantasy. What a Trip is her first adult novel. Susen lives in Middlesex, New Jersey with her husband, Bob, and her two fuzzy feline babies, Harold and Maude.

Editorial Reviews

10/10/2022

The adult debut from Edwards (Doctor Whisper and Nurse Willow) offers a slice-of-life detailing the dilemmas faced by Fiona O’Brien as she transforms from a confused, timid teen into a young woman chasing her dreams in the tumultuous U.S. in the late 1960s. New Jersey art student Fiona embarks on a road trip escape to Florida with her best friend Melissa, who is recovering from a difficult abortion. Among other Miami Beach misadventures with poets and antiwar artists, the young women encounter a tarot card reader whose reading hooks Melissa first on tarot and then the occult in general, while Fiona, though enticed, resists as the result of her strict Methodist upbringing. Back at school, Fiona falls for Reuben Goldberg, a charmer who challenges her—he asks her what the “theme” of her life is—and plans to emigrate to Canada to avoid the draft.

Fiona loves Reuben but is undecided about following. The novel finds her finding herself, and Edwards’s telling of the story is simple and unadorned, often driven by dialogue, charting life as it comes rather than imposing sensation or plot upon it. While determinedly ordinary in many ways, these characters still challenge the norms of their times and sometimes ours, too, as when Reuben speaks of his teenage sexual relationship with his friend Jeremy’s mother as being consensual, despite the fact that he was only 14. This charged material, as well as developments involving experiments with the occult, complicate the narrative.

The conflicts arise from trying to forge a life and find a self in a time of such upheaval. Their talk and fears and conflicts—including discord between mother and daughter—are highly specific and yet in many ways also timeless, the hearts and minds of young people convincingly rendered, as they feel towards their own truths and tragedies in a nation verging on a crackup.

Takeaway: A coming-of-age slice-of-life in which a young woman finds herself in the turbulent 1960s.

Great for fans of: Eldonna Edwards’s Clover Blue, Jane Vandenburgh’s Failure to Zigzag .

Production grades Cover: A Design and typography: A Illustrations: N/A Editing: A Marketing copy: A

BookLife Reviews

In this ambitious and skillfully written novel, Edwards presents three intriguing protagonists and delivers some rich period details, including about the Vietnam War and abortion laws.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“What a Trip: A Novel is flavorful, a balanced story that brims with realism and features intelligently written characters.”
—Readers’ Favorite, 5-star review

“Spare and uncompromising, What a Trip is a historical novel about a young woman’s tumultuous, painful coming-of-age.” 
—Foreword Reviews

“A coming-of-age slice-of-life in which a young woman finds herself in the turbulent 1960s. . . . Their talk and fears and conflicts . . . are highly specific and yet in many ways also timeless, the hearts and minds of young people convincingly rendered, feeling towards their own truths and tragedies as their nation verges on a crackup.”
—BookLife 

“Amid the turmoil of the 1960s in America, a young woman and her circle of friends find meaning in the power of friendships, romance, and many unexpected adventures. It’s a wild ride!”
—Vivian Fransen, author of The Straight Spouse: A Memoir

“What a Trip takes us back to the late 1960s, when a college girl tests the limits of free love, drugs, and the occult against her political views, family loyalty, and deep-rooted friendships. This nostalgic and gripping coming-of-age novel from debut author Susen Edwards is storytelling at its finest.”
—Valerie Taylor, author of What’s Not Said and What’s Not True

“What a trip! What a story! Set against the turbulent era of the Vietnam War, the author spins a tale of love, uncertainty, black magic, life, and death, with a nail-biting plot twist I never saw coming. Fasten your seatbelts and go along for the ride. For anyone who came of age in the ’60s and ’70s—and those who wish they had.” 
—Deborah K. Shepherd, author of So Happy Together 

“What A Trip celebrates and explores the universal complexity of female friendships. But it doesn’t stop there. It interrogates those tender and vulnerable places where a girl becomes a woman and whether or not those friends can survive the obstacles of youth. Told with beauty, grace, and a sharp insightfulness, Susen Edwards makes an unforgettable debut.”
—Krystal A. Sital, author of Secrets We Kept: Three Women of Trinidad and PEN Award Finalist

“Against the backdrop of the sizzling sixties, a beautiful and intelligent Fiona tries to figure out where she belongs and how she can shape her life. Drugs, sex, and rock'n'roll drive much of the action in this wonderful coming-of-age novel. Ms. Edwards uses her deft talents to create a compelling story that is hard to put down. A great and fast-moving read!”
—Jenny Brooks, author of Fractured: A Memoir

“Susen Edwards takes us on the ’70s, wild, generational jailbreak ride in her novel, What A Trip. Vietnam, the draft lottery, Woodstock, witchcraft, protests, acid . . . it’s all here! Through the eyes of the wide-eyed Fiona O’Brien, the story is a sensorial immersion in the unhinged explosion of consciousness of the times. I could almost taste the iceberg lettuce salads with fluorescent French dressing, hear the lyrics of a Creedence Clearwater Revival tune, and smell the home-grown weed.”
—J. Dylan Yates, author of The Belief in Angels

“Wow—this is a trip! Anyone who remembers those days will find themselves in a familiar world, rich with detail and lyrics of the times, including a song playlist at the end. The author’s protagonist has an authentic voice and her worries were our youthful worries.”
—Linda Moore, author of Attribution

“The cusp of adulthood is both scary and hopeful, and it was particularly fraught in the late ’60s and early ’70s. What a Trip skillfully evokes the era as well as the poignant personal lives of nineteen-year-old art student Fiona O’Brien and her best friend, Melissa. My fingers were crossed all along the way for Fiona to figure out who she is and what she wants, and have the courage to take a chance on her future. A novel that feels deeply honest and true.”
—Heidi Hackford, author of Folly Park

“An engaging trip through the social and political upheaval of life in the ’60s through the eyes of a young woman looking for love and meaning in life. Sex, drugs, and the Vietnam War provide the backdrop for a story that dramatically illustrates the complexity of the times and the changing values from one generation to the next. Despite the clamor all around them, attempting to pull them apart, the characters in this entertaining and heartfelt novel admirably demonstrate the importance of human connection.”
—Debra Green, author of The Convention of Wives

“What a Trip by Susen Edwards is like entering a time machine back to the 1960s. Many of the themes in this book—abortion choice, drugs, government corruption—are as relevant today as they were then. Whether you lived the ’60s or only heard about that transformative time from your parents, this book will take you on a journey you will not regret.”
—Patricia Grayhall, author of Making the Rounds

From the Publisher

2022-08-01
A novel focuses on the chaotic journey of three friends during the late 1960s and the gritty early ’70s, when flower power wilts under the forces of evil.

High school pals Melissa, Peach, and Fiona are adrift after graduation, but that doesn’t mean their lives lack drama as they search for purpose (and men). It’s the tail end of the ’60s, and the Vietnam War, Woodstock, Apollo 11, Easy Rider, anti-war marches, the abortion issue, the draft, Kent State, and the Kama Sutra all make appearances. To help guide the three to their futures and to prevent them from committing themselves to making decisions, they dabble in tarot cards, which involve a higher power too vague for them to understand yet one they believe in. Thankfully for Fiona, her Roman Catholic parents don’t know anything about this—and that she really likes men. But while Peach finds a boyfriend, Fiona and Melissa are still looking for companionship. Melissa complains about her and Fiona’s bleak situation to Peach: “No matter what we do, it turns to shit. Neither of our lives is working out, especially compared to you. We don’t have boyfriends. Nothing. Right, Fee?” Soon, Fiona and Melissa do have boyfriends. Fiona plans to follow soul mate Reuben to Canada, where he can avoid the draft, but Melissa suffers a harsher fate. Melissa’s belief in the occult is put to rest when Vincent, an older interloper with Satanic aspirations, appears briefly on the scene. He supposedly cut a deal with the devil to become a rock star but needs a willing accomplice to help him. In this ambitious and skillfully written novel, Edwards presents three intriguing protagonists and delivers some rich period details, including about the Vietnam War and abortion laws. But the Vincent subplot does not bolster the narrative even though Melissa (for a time) believes in the guy. In addition, civil rights, one of the era’s most important stories, isn’t meaningfully addressed here. After Peach runs off to San Francisco with an African American man, she hardly enters the story again. In a tale about this tumultuous period, the issue could have been more fully explored. The women’s movement gets short shrift as well. And the author offers a somewhat inconclusive ending.

A well-written but incomplete snapshot of a turbulent time.

Kirkus Reviews