Idyllwild

Abstract

My literary novel titled Idyllwild is set in the upscale Michigan suburb of Idyllwild during the 1990s. The protagonist Edith (Edie) Arthur counts the months until high school graduation. Since moving to Idyllwild eight years earlier, Edie has relied on the social prowess of her boyfriend Joe and best friend Anne for a sense of belonging. But as senior year progresses, Joe and Anne are proving less reliable, even as Edie’s younger brother Carl grows more self-destructive. When Carl is charged with drug possession, Edie’s family starts to unravel. Her father, a respected federal prosecutor fighting the “War on Drugs” in Detroit, is personally and professionally humiliated, while her mother copes by downplaying the situation. Edie takes aim at her brother’s hockey coach, a man who quietly promotes a culture of violence and duplicity. With his winning record and seeming ability to recruit players to the University of Michigan, the coach wields power over his players and the school community. Investigating a story for the school newspaper on a hockey rule violation, Edie stumbles on a much deeper secret. This is the moment that begins my thesis, which is Book II of the novel. Book I was completed during an Independent Study at Harvard in 2021. Book II explores Edie’s struggle to expose the truth about the hockey coach, and to navigate the unexpected response of the adult world. Idyllwild is a coming-of-age novel about a young girl facing some of life’s most disturbing truths, including the fact that very few of us want to know about them. Ultimately, Edie must come to terms with the things she too has hidden, if only from herself.