Chuck Dugan Is AWOL: A Novel - With Maps [Hardcover]

Eric Chase Anderson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 7, 2005

On the day of his eighteenth birthday, midshipman cadet Chuck Dugan receives a startling letter, including a treasure map drawn by his late father and news that his mother is about to marry a rogue and scoundrel known as "the Admiral." When the Admiral warns Chuck away from his mother, and the Admiral's sons attack the young cadet, Chuck leaps into action, going AWOL from duty to stop the wedding and find the treasure. So begins this delightful illustrated novel and the thrilling adventures of Chuck Duganheroic, resourceful, a great swimmer, and master of disguise. In each cliffhanging chapter, Chuck must grapple with a new set of dangers, from sunken ships and buccaneers to survival on open water and a final race to the treasure ahead of the Admiral and his boys. Illuminated throughout with detailed maps of places, people, and things Chuck encounters along the way, and written with an electric sense of derring-do and whimsy, Eric Chase Anderson creates a totally original and captivating hero, and a swashbuckling adventure story for all ages.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Anderson (brother of film director Wes Anderson) debuts with a whimsical little tale, which, though billed as fiction for grownups, falls into the no man's land between graphic novel and children's book. The story follows Naval Academy dropout, blueblood heir, junior inventor and master of disguise Chuck Dugan, 18, as he tries to stop his mother from marrying his father's arch-enemy, "The Admiral," and find the buried treasure his deceased father left for him. The pace is breathless, breaking only for quirky illustrations of a room, a character, a prop or an invention (the Powered Submersible Bicycle, for instance). Backstory—why would Chuck's mother want to marry the sociopathic Admiral? What is the buried treasure?—is largely ignored in favor of wacky forward momentum. Like a junior James Bond (minus the ladykiller business), Chuck wiggles his way out of messes just at the last minute: he escapes the Admiral's thugs via a propeller bike (which doesn't actually work) and narrowly avoids drowning when a pirated submarine rescues him. Silly, yes, amusing, yes—but it's also a little too lightweight and self-consciously cute. 35 color and b&w illus. Agent, Amanda Urban. (May)
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About the Author

Eric Chase Anderson began making maps as Christmas presents for his family. Initial subjects included a house, a minivan, and his brother. Since then, his illustrations have appeared in Time magazine, the New York Observer , and in the film and DVD packagi

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (April 7, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811839206
• ISBN-13: 978-0811839204
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #392,553 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quirky, charming, and reminds me of the childhood I thought I had, October 4, 2008

By 

Christa R (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Chuck Dugan Is AWOL: A Novel - With Maps (Hardcover)

I'm a sucker for books with maps, pullouts, and all sorts of ephemera. This particular book is a book of maps, drawn in a very precise, almost quirky style. The drawings are very simple, yet it's possible to be immersed in them for days. Annotations on the maps tend to draw grins: coffee stain, size 14.5 boots, missing wheel.

It's no secret that Eric Chase Anderson is the brother of director Wes Anderson. And if you're wondering if they share the same quirky style - yes, they do. For example, the story itself is about Chuck Dugan - "who has seen snakebite, fear, and a man shot in the knee."

The story is a throwback to detective and adventure novels most of us have read as children. Over-the-top action, plots, usurpers. It's enough to make anyone smile wistfully in memory of reading those books.

Sudden details jump out of nowhere, without any sort of build-up to them. Instead of making it into a weak story, this slightly scattered form of writing, however, only adds to the charm. But even if this form of writing isn't your style, the maps will be.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Chuck & Sally's Universe is a pretty cool place.., September 11, 2005

By 

Third Ring - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chuck Dugan Is AWOL: A Novel - With Maps (Hardcover)

Chuck Dugan Is Awol is a "novel with maps" - and only when I realized that it's just not to be read like a regular book (or even a graphic novel) did I really understand its significant charms. The difference is that Chuck Dugan isn't so much about following the characters or plot elements. Its about joining Chuck and Sally in a rich and quirky universe that's been created especially for them. I find myself lingering on the illustrations and chapters while the plot sort of materializes at its own pace rather than running at a breathless sprint, which is what I associate with traditional adventure novels. While the drawings locate the reader physically and emotionally, the tendrils of Chuck's world are rules and codes of behavior which run though the narrative. Some rules have to be kept in the strictest manner like the rule of the ocean (of which Chuck of course is a master) and some rules have to be broken (Chuck is, after all, Awol from the Navel Academy in order to save his mother and the family fortune). The villains are the ones who break rules for selfish reasons and do things that just shouldn't be done. What makes this fresh and fun is that Chuck's world is just different enough from our own that the "rules" he lives by feel like a throwback to an alterate-world era that never existed in the first place.

Chuck's been on my bedstand since I bought it back in May, and I'm not finished with it yet; in fact, I'm only on Chapter Ten - "Too Late". If you still haven't "gotten it" take a look at the caption on the illustration of the apple on page 120 -- or the tiny dot that is Rescue Buoy No.49 just noticeable in the right hand corner of the Chapter Eight illustration.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Chuck Dugan" Is A Beautifully Perfect Book, April 14, 2005

By 

The Crooked Man (Brookhaven, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chuck Dugan Is AWOL: A Novel - With Maps (Hardcover)

Is it the the story, written with such care, or the illustrations, very obviously rendered with love, that make "Chuck Dugan Is AWOL" the book that will keep you awake at night thinking about time travel, wishing that you could send it back to your thirteen year-old self?

It's just the thing you've always loved about reading: a hero (who seems like someone you could actually BE if you tried hard enough), a mystery, a life of adventure, stalwart friends, wonderfully sinister villains, maps of secret passages, outlandish devices and inventions...

Details clever enough to catapult any story to instant classic are a dime a dozen in the pages of "Chuck". The illustrations will consume hours of your time as you study every detail.

Some things to consider: "The Thorns", "Fraunces", a fatal observatory fire, a "Deputy Assistant Junior Naval Investigator", a birthday telegram from President Eisenhower, and (my favorite) "U-boat X".

This book is dense enough, deep enough, that you'll lose yourself in it for days. It's one of those stories that you just don't want to finish, because you don't want to leave the place where it takes you while you're reading. Buy it for the young reader in your family, or buy it for the young reader in yourself.