Synopsis "Schoolhouse-Nuthouse Road: A Journey into Wisdom"
"Schoolhouse-Nuthouse Road takes you places you've never been, teaches you things you've never known, and introduces you to people you'll never forget." Thomas Hasselbeck, Jr. is on top of the world. His father chairs the Economics Department at the University of Kentucky, he's close to gaining his Doctorate in Philosophy and has a high-society girlfriend. Then his father dies in a scandalous affair, heavily in debt. Penniless and alone, shunned by his former colleagues and mentors, he abandons his studies and sets out to make a living. Not in the cultural oasis he's accustomed to, but among hardscrabble working men on a Kentucky Highway Department survey crew. Resented and suspected, and totally out of his element, he struggles to reconcile his academic, highly theoretical framework with the coarse pressures of working men and women. Contemptuous of those he believes are cretins and rednecks, he suddenly learns he's in another world--their world--and must quickly unlearn most everything he knows to survive. The crew works racing tracks, the narcotic farm, mental institution and other seamy sides of the bluegrass region, exposing Thomas to events and people he hardly suspected existed. As the story unfolds, he begins to understand the ethos of these men, the reasons they act as they do, and the dilemmas they face. Then they head into the deep woods of Appalachia and things get even more strange. Living out of seedy mountainside motels and spending nights in illegal drinking shacks and shady bars, these men encounter raving preachers, wise sages, desperate women and forlorn families. All the while, Thomas is revising his worldview, learning why it's wise to call an obese man Tiny or a stripper Angel. He confronts the great distinctions between free will and fate, how people can get devoured by their circumstances, and how courage and honor are achieved even among the downtrodden. Thomas is taking a high-speed journey from learned wisdom to lived wisdom. Ride along with him as he hurtles to a wholly unsuspected destination.
