Customer Reviews

Sailor Song

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Ken Kesey's recent passing made me look back at my favorite books of his and fellow trafficker in the anti-Divine Jack Kerouac and somehow I revisited SAILOR SONG first. The New York TIMES didn't like it when it was published in '93 but I recall thinking "They're just not on the bus... DUHHHH" and bought it anyway. The ride was stellar, and it still is. Kesey's tale of the last bunch of individualist crazies at the end of America (and the world too) has its flaws, and I agree with the other online reviews you will read here: the end has a deus ex machina look to it (not that one character, the bookish Billy the Squid, doesn't red-flag the reader with a warning mid-on; a spectacularly nervy aside), the romance subplot is a bit shaky, the air of the novel smacks of the NORTHERN EXPOSURE television show from a few years back, the end of Bad Guy Nick Levertov is not as well-described as it might be... but the central theme of a moneyed juggernaut sailing into an untamed, delightfully-chaotic-because-it's-meant-to-be backwater of America (whatever, as Jack K. said in his dedication in VISIONS OF CODY, that is) strikes a chord on my piano. In SAILOR SONG two halves of America (Babbitt versus Walt Whitman) collide, and thanks to the success of the Babbitt half over many years (the befouling of the natural world) the payback interrupts the flow of the novel. Another nervy trick from the old Prankster, but for me it works. Because as we can see from the disrupted weather patterns of the last 20 years, we are going to be in a similar situation very shortly. And Kesey's description of Mother Nature's payback to the human race is the best thing in the book. Well, not quite, but close. Ike Sallas is the tired hero, letting things swirl around him, stepping in at exactly the wrong moment to little effect, and his very ineffectuality is what makes him as real as he is here (most especially when he finds he has fans who take up his cudgel for him in the immediate vicinity). And the asides, some of them borrowed from Walt Kelly ("From here on down it's uphill all the way"), the Grateful Dead, Tom Pynchon, Rudyard Kipling, and Jack
Kerouac himself, all widen the scope into an 'American saga'
(yes, one of those) which may not be ON THE ROAD, but it isn't about finding oneslf by leaving. It's about finding oneself by living. A divine read. Thanks, Ken.

Up front: I'm a long-time fan of Ken's -- including the videos, the CDs, and his classic periodical SPIT IN THE OCEAN. I liked SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION a lot better as a book than a film. So that's where I'm coming from...

SAILOR SONG is superb, remarkable and unmatched in contemporary literature. Ken's grasp of the human condition is extraordinary: man/woman, inter-family, small town, international, global, you name it and Ken's got it in SAILOR SONG. It's an easier read than NOTION, but not as clearcut as NEST.

So many posts here question the ending; not me. I trust Ken ended this the way he saw fit, like the master he was. Life doesn't end cleanly, even though it begins with promise and evolves with careful plot. I don't think any other writer has addressed the scenario of the poles shifting, so while this isn't quite an "end of the world" tale, surely it's clear why Ken dubbed this his science fiction novel.

The characters are unforgettable, and yes the novel reads like a screenplay because it is so extraordinarily vividly written. There are plot twists and curlicues galore -- that's the skill and scope of Kesey coming across. SAILOR SONG, like his other novels, is brimming with quotable phrases and passages that ache for outboarding and inclusion in BARTLETT'S BOOK OF QUOTATIONS. He's that good.

The scenario overall is unforgettable, and the pace is so beguiling that despite the novel's length; when it was over my ONLY regret was that there wasn't more superb literature to keep me riveted. If you are anxious to be engaged, challenged and rewarded by a book time and again, savor SAILOR SONG to the last drop. There ain't no dregs here, just sweet wonderful language coming from a mind without equal. Ken's passing last November was a loss without measure, but we readers are blessed with these words. Enjoy!

This is Keysey's most brilliant comentary on the present state of affair of the global village as seen from the not to distant future.

This is a book that you can laugh out loud at and my wife will turn to me and say "What is so funny" and I for the life of me can't explain what is so funny. The tale has alot of charisma and chutzpah. Kesey's expansiveness reminds me of Kerouac or Whitman ( God help me if I spelled their names wrong don't all you snobs e-mail me with the correct spelling, please ) and is genuinely funny. He has a way of making all the politically correctness we are obsessing about funny. Anyway rent the movie Alaska but enjoy the book

Ken Kesey in an American master, proving once again (with Sailor Song) that he will always remain one the top authors of all-time. The only unfortunate thing for the reader is that Mr. Kesey's body of work is not larger. -DCC in Berrien Springs, MI

While the themes K. deals with in this novel are interesting and important (the vanishing of wilderness; pollution; the morally corrupting impact of capitalism and American mainstream entertainment in particular; the possibility of catastrophic environmental change in our lifetimes), much of this novel reads like a screenplay.

This distracts from K.'s ideas and from the creation of atmosphere....which K. can do so well. It's a shame to have Alaska's wilderness pushed so far to the background (and Australia, which Kesey has visited, dismissed rapidly and superficially early in the book). This is especially so as the human interactions are fairly predictable, as are even the most eccentric of the characters, and as the plot leans heavily on natural events and wild animals, especially near the somewhat frenzied ending.

Compared to earlier works, including the shorter, better focused pieces in Demon Box, Sailor Song is frustrating: on the one hand too short (spookily powerful descriptions of wilderness are cut off, interesting ideas such as the psychic life of indigenous people are only hinted at) and too long (we're given a lot of detail that leads us absolutely nowhere). Has Kesey been let down by his editors?

I read 8 other reviews of this book, and I am still buying it, for the second time. I was captivated by the issues, characters, and story line that was depressingly promissing. Hope. I do agree that all could have been wrapped up differently in the end. It was too quick and well empty. But it is not the joy of the top of the mountain that has us climb. It is the climb. Enjoy the ride! Enjoy Sailors Song.

Kesey tells the tale that every American wants to live. He uses all the characters we wish we knew. This adeventure should not be missed.
Man vs. man, man vs. himself, man vs. nature, man vs. society-- and it's all the same man.

Don't we all wish we could be as resilent, crafty and stuburn as the Backatcha Bandit.

Well anyone who knows Kesey knows this isn't his best book. But after such a long hiatus from novel writing it's a pretty strong piece of work. In fact, some of the scenes in here are as vivid and compelling as anything the wise old prankster ever wrote. I think it's especially poignant to realize that Kesey knew full well this would be his last book, and he put all kinds of little touches in it to acknowledge that fact. A big, lusty book from a big lusty man, and a worthy coda to an amazing life.

While I found this book interesting, it doesn't rise to the level of "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" or "Sometimes a Great Notion." The book was interesting, but then tails off at the end. The ending was rather ant-climatic and leaves several story lines hanging. It presents a rather bleak view of the future from an environmental stand point for sure. It would also seem he has a rather low opinion of most of humanity based on his characters in this and the previously mentioned two books. Unfortunately I would tend to agree with him on that.