Summary - 'As Fast As It Is Gone'
As Fast As It Is Gone is the story of David Riggs, a man struggling between a spiritual awakening and being engrossed in an Enron-esque corporate scandal. A man who chooses to escape his world rather than stay involved in an opportunity that threatens his job and his sanity. But escape is not that easy when it's coupled with greed and an underdeveloped sense of adventure. When David finds himself on the run and on the river, he finds out how his escape could lead to his demise.

David Riggs's life as a young executive at the Commax Timber Concern in Portland, Oregon is thrown into disarray as he faces a series of brushes with death and tries to repair his fragile relationship with his decidedly anti-corporate wife, Sara. Rekindling his marriage leads to new experiences, like Merl Piping's spirituality class at the Greater Multnomah County Healing Center and reuniting with an old friend in the mountains of Breckenridge, Colorado. Sara starts to believe in David's recovery.

Julien Crenshaw, David's mentor at the timber company, is a raucous corporate climber with early onset heart disease. Julien is recruited by the CEO of the larger holding company, Commax, Inc., to help orchestrate a scheme to turn the holding company's debts into profits using accounting trickery. The result is a biotech venture facilitated by a Wall Street investment bank and an accountant with whom David went to college.

David Riggs must reconcile his marriage with his career; that much is clear to him as he recovers from Guillan Barré disease. Less clear is how he will navigate his spiritual awakening after he finds himself promoted to President of the new Forest Life Partnership. Faced with navigating his spiritual awakening amid the center of a massive securities scandal, David unwittingly finds his inner self, a man who is a blend of what he admires and what he seeks to avoid. He decides there is only one way out, escape. And there's only one way to escape with Sara, and that's with a lot of money. David attempts to escape his corporate world with an unlikely accomplice, and he leaves Oregon with a wild plan that takes him to back to Colorado for a river trip with Wild Bill LaRota.

From the peaks and rivers of Colorado, to the high towers of New York City and the low towers of Portland Oregon, the scandal unfurls and then erupts at the confluence of David's wild escape plan and a corporate scandal threatened by that escape.

As Fast As It Is Gone is the story of a man who loses touch with reality, yet escapes his world to rediscover love and spirit. In trying to save his life and his love, David comes to understand what Merl Piping meant in naming his class 'living deliberately'.