After writing two books in the early 1960s, both now established as
American classics, Ken Kesey abandoned the novel in its established
form. Over the past twenty-five years he has written many shorter
pieces, but only now, with Sailor Song, brings his considerable powers
once again to bear on a full-scale undertaking, giving us a unique and
powerful novel about America. Set in the near future, the story takes us
to the Alaskan village of Kuinak, a rundown fishing community of Deaps
(Descendants of Early Aboriginal Peoples) and Lower Forty-eight refugees
perched on the Western Edge of history. It's a scene rich with
characters, like Alice the Angry Aleut, Ike Sallas (known as "the
Bakatcha Bandit" during the environmental wars of the nineties), the
town's indispensable "scoot" runner Billy the Squid, and the Loyal Order
of Underdogs, who meet monthly for the Full Moon Howl. Into their
peculiar midst sails a mighty ship of last hopes, loaded to the gunwales
with a big-bucks Hollywood film company. This famous studio/yacht has
come north to film a classic childrenas book, The Sea Lion. Unscripted
transformations abound as the project stirs a new mix into the
community, including a tribe brought down from the remote north. Sailor
Song is an epic novel that revolves around the question: Does love make
any sense at the end of the world? It's about things that endure and
come around again - back at you, and back to you.
