Between Transitions

This book cannot be read like a typical novel, because this is not a typical novel; the act of reading this book/how you read it is as important to the novel as the story itself. The first third of the book is an account of-, but simultaneously an internal dialogue and conflict coming to resolution. While what follows is what it looks like to come to terms with that resolution, in the way that people do: messy, uncertain, confusing, & c.

When nearly defeated but nervously optimistic Jonah writes and sells a best-selling American novel, he avoids the bizarre aftermath of distinction by skating through Europe one train station at a time, skimming, also his arduous past and the vague unfolding of his future.

Jonah has led an interesting life. After traveling across the United States searching for something that he's certain he is lacking, and never quite understanding what that is, he returns to his family home ten years later to organize and to recollect.

While home Jonah completes a novel, his first, which indirectly allows him to affront the newly presented challenges of developing friendships, interacting socially, navigating anxiety, and recreating a sense of identity. Both the financial means and an eagerness to start anew lands him in Europe where he is now capable of measuring the trials that have followed him throughout the course of his life, and where he ultimately comes to a place of personal acceptance, while simultaneously acknowledging the values of uncertainty.