From Huckleberry Finn to Holden Caulfield, American literature has thrived on heroes who take quasi-aimless journeys that turn into trips of self-discovery. Sometimes the travels are made in “fear and loathing”; at other instances, they are pursued with beatific beatnik hope for transcendence. But almost always, the wanderers are young, and their trips serve as a rite of passage to a more mature state of being.
In Jim Harrison's novel The English Major, the man on the road is 60 years old. That gives Cliff, our protagonist, two years on John Steinbeck when that novelist embarked on his Travels with Charley, and more than two decades of seniority over Humbert Humbert when the latter set off on the road with the maiden-child of his dreams. Cliff has no hopes of getting to some higher level of maturity on his trip; rather he would settle for one more taste of the youthful idealism he had once enjoyed as an English major back at Michigan State.
As is almost de rigueur in these road novels, a mostly arbitrary itinerary drives the plot forward. In Cliff’s case, he brings along a jigsaw puzzle of the United States, with separate pieces for each state. The puzzle was much beloved by his brother Teddy, a Down syndrome child who drowned as a youngster. Our protagonist aims to visit each of the states - or at least the 48 contiguous states, since Cliff is afraid of flying. He will throw away the respective puzzle piece as he leaves each state. Yes, I think "arbitrary" is the kindest descriptor for our hero's plan of action.
He has much to flee back in Michigan. His marriage broke up after his wife Vivian used the occasion of their 40th high school reunion to have a fling with an old classmate. She disappeared with Fred in his Italian sports car, and showed up an hour later with grass stains on her knees. But Cliff seems even more heartbroken over the death of his dog Lola, and the sale of the family farm where he has labored and enjoyed a simple rural lifestyle for many years.
One of his first stops is in Morris, Minnesota, where he meets with Marybelle, a former student from a period when Cliff worked as a high school teacher. He soon finds himself in a strenuous love affair with the younger woman, who tests his stamina and perhaps even more his patience. Further stops on his trip are organized around visits to an old friend who lives with the snakes in the Arizona desert, and Cliff’s son Robert, a gay movie mogul on the West Coast.
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