Looking for Bigfoot: A New Novel for America [Paperback]

Mike Palecek (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Howling Dog Pr (November 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1882863607
• ISBN-13: 978-1882863600
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,735,818 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Conspiracies exposed by creative fiction!!, February 17, 2006

By 

Stewart Bradley "aggressive progressive" (Lancaster, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Looking for Bigfoot: A New Novel for America (Paperback)

There is a small, but growing, number of Americans who know
something has gone terribly wrong with our government. They
know that for decades our government has covertly been involved
in election rigging, political assassinations, drug smuggling, and
the training and sponsoring of terrorists. They also know George
W. Bush was never elected, 9-11 was an inside job, and our current
occupation of the middle east is not about spreading democracy.

In short, these people know they are being lied to and they want
the truth. Jack Robert King is one of these people.

In Mike Palecek's latest book, "Looking for Bigfoot", Jack King is
the renegade host of an internet show, 'Bigfoot Radio"; Bigfoot being
a metaphor for all the dark conspiracy myths surrounding our
country that, despite the evidence, are just too frightening to
believe.

Broadcasting from his family home in Iowa, King delivers a daily
rant on the sad state of modern America, delving into controversial
topics with a brilliant mix of sarcastic wit and shocking honesty
that would never be allowed on any mainstream media. Who killed
JFK, RFK, and MLK? What really happened at Waco, Okalahoma City,
and Ruby Ridge? Is America the beacon of freedom or the new
imperial threat to the world?

King understands the peril of his position; most people would
want to shut him up because they consider his opinion paranoid and
unpatriotic, while others would want to shut him up because what
he is saying is true. Yet he continues his show even if it makes him
feel alienated from his country, his community, and even his family.

Then King mysteriously receives a magazine featuring a story
about his childhood mentor who has gone missing in an Oregon
forest while looking for the illusive Bigfoot himself. He decides to
risk his marriage and his sanity by taking a bus trip west on a quest
to find his lost friend and the answers to America's darkest secrets.
Throughout the book you get a sense that author Mike Palecek has
modeled Jack King's character after his own life experiences and
uses King to vent his own frustration at the world from the pages
of a fictional book.

Indeed the novel itself is kind of like Palecek's own "Bigfoot"
broadcast as he tries to reach out to an uninformed public and
demonstrate that behind every outrageous conspiracy theory sits
an ugly nugget of truth that will not just go away if ignored.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pulpy, paranoid, dyspeptic and slightly better than you think, February 12, 2006

By 

Ron Franscell, Author of 'Sourtoe Cocktail Club' - See all my reviews

This review is from: Looking for Bigfoot: A New Novel for America (Paperback)

Palecek is a sick puppy, and proud of it. His world view is a little more paranoid than some schizophrenics, but hell, mental health isn't a requirement for storytellers. And, hey, maybe Palecek is the sane one and the rest of us are insane lemmings. As I read "Bigfoot" I had to keep reminding myself not to confuse authors with their protagonists, but Palecek has been fairly blunt about certain political qualities he shares with his protag, Jack Robert King, who happens (unlike Palecek, one hopes) to be an unsettled, unemployed, unbalanced hyper-liberal screwball-misfit who does little more than rant into the ether about on his Internet radio program.

His topics? The usual: Stolen elections, the obvious conspiracies to kill Kennedy and King, the Roswell cover-up, the Conservative Media ... blah blah blah. But he also puts forward the theory that the WTC attack was a U.S. government conspiracy, and the assassination of liberal Sen. Paul Wellstone in a contrived plane crash. Freaky stuff.

The story finally turns interesting when King hits the road from his Iowa home (at the Field of Dreams movie set) to the wilderness of Oregon, where his quest is to find an old baseball coach and learn the truth about Bigfoot. OK, still a little freaky.

But suddenly here's this freak Jack King in a classic hero's journey, rubbing up against stranger beings than Cyclops and Lotus-eaters on a never-ending bus trip. Whether by accident or shrewd planning, Palecek has contrived a smart story. Not perfect, not always palatable, not even remotely convincing in its politics, but away from the didactics ... pretty smart.

Don't pick up "Bigfoot" unless you think George W. Bush is the Anti-Christ and Dick Cheney framed Fatty Arbuckle. It's not worth busting a vein. But if you want to see what bubbles around in the heads of the Far, Far, Far Left, check it out.

5.0 out of 5 stars More of Mike's good work., March 4, 2011

By 

r ap - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Looking for Bigfoot: A New Novel for America (Paperback)

I've never seen Bigfoot, or a UFO. I did see a big city in the sky once, hanging upside down from the bottom of a rain cloud. Remembering that makes me believe that anything is possible.