In the labyrinths of the mind, there is a thin line between love and madness. They say it is genius that draws the line, but it is not; it’s love. Love in the most intimate of connections, the tie that binds us as one.
Provocative and edgy, in the modernist metafiction tradition, Journey blurs, bends and severs the line between narrative and fiction, from Gothically romantic horror to the sardonic tales of a romance novelist, surrealistic realism and the stark raving reality of madness.
Sidney Alder had it all, at least she thought she did. The perfect marriage, a devoted husband, the perfect life, active in the community, known in all the best circles, and she loved them all. But when Lawrence, her perfect husband, covered one trail too many with one lie too many about an account gone wrong, it was not just his career that he lost. Even he didn’t have a clue where he left reality.
Relentless in her fight for what was left of the life she cherished, her place in the world, as she knew it, and her only love in it, Sidney travels boldly on the path between love and madness. Each night, in the darkness, she confronts the unrelenting visitations of the succubae, as they force her to question everything she ever knew and believed about love. By day, she makes her solitary journey to the asylum, determined to do whatever it takes to support her beloved husband in his seemingly hopeless battles with reality.
Life in the asylum isn’t all bad though, for it is there that we meet Miss Vickie, Victoria Rosemoral, the best-selling romance writer of all time. However, even she has her own challenges when it comes to reality (otherwise she probably would not be living at the asylum). Nonetheless, she lives the perfect life of a perfect romance. It just all happens to be in her head. Despite it all, her tales are mesmerizing, and eventually, she draws in everyone around her, including herself, which is precisely why everyone buys her books, while she lives at the asylum.
Despite her love for Lawrence, Sidney soon finds herself succumbing to Miss Vickie’s fantasies of passion, romance, and a very handsome, albeit imaginary, pirate.
Gothically romantic, psychologically sarcastic metafiction, Journey weaves story into story: Sidney and her succubae, Lawrence’s nonexistent grip on reality, the doctors’ determination to cure him at all costs, no matter what the cost, and the romance novels of Miss Vickie. Who will save them? And what is it with the dog? Does anyone at all know where reality is? Where is that line—the one between stark raving reality…, love—glorious—love, and madness…
