An unfinished novel, stolen car, a murdered pet, an unstable student, a fed-up wife, a pregnant lover - it's safe to say that Grady Tripp has a number of issues to deal with this weekend.



Grady is a 50ish English professor who hasn't had a thing published in years - not since he wrote his award winning Great American Novel, 7 years ago. It's hardly surprising then that his college's annual literary fills the former wonder boy with more than his usual quota of self-doubt and anxiety. He finds himself reeling from one misadventure to another in the company of a new wonder boy, James Leer. He's Grady's most gifted writing student. He's also a fluent liar whose peculiar behavior launches the professor on a picaresque odyssey of self-discovery...