About This Book
Disillusioned with American life, a Canadian professor living in Los Angeles takes a long vacation to visit his family's old homeland in the west of Scotland--and finds more than an old castle. The book begins with his divorce from his self-absorbed American wife. Tired of her stressful and demanding presence, he tried girlfriends from various countries, and travels. When a valuable old book is mysteriously left at his college office, Fergusson, acting on impulse, tries to return the book to its presumed Irish owner. But the owner is already following Fergusson, as he soon becomes aware. Back in America, Fergusson is himself almost annulled and effaced by the competition between his girlfriends and by a power struggle and sports scandal at his university. However, his renewed identity as a Fergusson and also the help of a strange but loyal Scottish barmaid help him escape the formless corporate chaos as an individual divorced from the folly of American culture. At the critical moment, and as his frustrated girlfriends look on, the Irish stranger steps forward and all mystery is revealed. Entertaining and captivating, The Annulment of Tom Fergusson is a darkly comical look at the worst of America, and the best of Scotland.
