Getting Over Edgar

June M. Blurton is a retired speech/language pathologist.

Edgar walks out on Gwen after a humdrum 20-year marriage. Seven weeks
later, he dies in horrific circumstances. Instead of accompanying his
body to the cemetery, Gwen spends time in bed with David, a young man
she has just met and whom she never sees again. David visits his
psychiatrist and his social worker, and then heads to his job at a bar;
his life has been more miserable than usual since he was convicted of
exposing himself, but Gwen’s acceptance of him is a turning point.

As Gwen clears up the litter of Edgar’s life, she gets to know him
and herself better. She sells her subdued suburban house, buys a motor
home, and heads west. Long before she reaches the mountains, she picks
up Jack, a middle-aged poet and hitchhiker. From the beginning they know
their relationship will end at the coast, but it is the difference
between Jack and Edgar that allows Gwen to get the anger out of her
system. These are the bare bones of quirky story that is by turns funny
and serious and peopled with fully realized characters.