Sailor Song
by Ken Kesey
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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 show more (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 children's 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. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
This is a strange and fun read. Be prepared to get swept in, wonder wholeheartedly about where these characters are before and after, and enjoy the ride. The language here pleases, too, as Kesey has as much fun and talent with the writing as he does with the characters.
I read Cuckoo's Nest in high school, quickly followed by Sometimes a Great Notion, and as much as I loved both books, I never read anything else by Kesey until I moved to Alaska in 1996, and read Sailor Song on the trip up.
The first two books really pushed me. They were weighty, and deserved a few good readings. I liked Sailor Song, but I cannot say it moved me to any kind of new understanding, either about Alaska, or Life in General.
Kesey later admitted the acid pretty much ruined his career as a writer, which is a great loss. This is a decent read, especially if you have an interest in Alaska, but unless you are a collector, you can put it on bookcrossing soon after.
Oh, and by the way...polar bear liver is highly poisonous....don't show more EVER eat it. show less
The first two books really pushed me. They were weighty, and deserved a few good readings. I liked Sailor Song, but I cannot say it moved me to any kind of new understanding, either about Alaska, or Life in General.
Kesey later admitted the acid pretty much ruined his career as a writer, which is a great loss. This is a decent read, especially if you have an interest in Alaska, but unless you are a collector, you can put it on bookcrossing soon after.
Oh, and by the way...polar bear liver is highly poisonous....don't show more EVER eat it. show less
darn review went into the air!!!!
50 cents!
50 cents!
A tratti è un buon libro ma che non entusiasma nel suo insieme.
Nov 13, 2009Italian
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Author Information
37+ Works 33,300 Members
Ken Kesey, September 17, 1935 - November 10, 2001 Kenneth Elton "Ken" Kesey was born in Colorado on September 17, 1935. He graduated from the University of Oregon, and published two full-length novels that helped to give him a cult following. "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1962) owes much to Kesey's own experience as a ward attendant at the show more Menlo Park Veterans' Hospital. This exciting first novel was told from the point of view of a half-Indian man who thinks of himself as the Big Chief pictured on the writing tablets of everybody's school days looking out at the other inmates in a Disneylike world. Its portrayal of the doomed but heroic rebel McMurphy stood for a particular kind of American individualism. The book was adapted into a successful stage play by Dale Wasserman, and in 1975, Milos Forman directed a screen adaptation, which won the "Big Five" Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher), Best Director (Forman) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Lawrence Hauben, Bo Goldman). Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion (1964) is a long, complex novel that troubled many of his earlier readers. Kesey's most recent novel was Demon Box (1987); although it was somewhat well received, it was still compared unfavorably to his earlier works. His last major work was an essay for Rolling Stone magazine calling for peace in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. On October 25, 2001, Kesey had surgery on his liver to remove a tumor. He died of complications from the surgery on November 10, 2001. He was 66. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Awards
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Sailor song
- Original title
- Sailor Song
- Original publication date
- 1992
- People/Characters
- Ike Sallas; Alice Carmody
- Important places
- Alaska, USA; USA
- Epigraph
- And Jesus was a sailor /
When he walked upon the water /
And he spent a long time watching /
From his lonely wooden tower /
And when he knew for certain /
Only drowning men could see him /
He said, All... (show all) men will be sailors then /
Until the sea shall free them. /
But he himself was broken /
Long before the sky would open /
Forsaken, almost human /
He sank beneath your wisdom /
Like a stone.
--Leonard Cohen - Dedication
- To Faye-- /
a deep keel in the raving waves /
a polestar in the dark /
a shipmate - First words
- Ike Sallas was asleep when it began, in a red aluminum Galaxxy, not all that far away and only a short skip into the future.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Mejack, the youngest, took the opportunity to swoop down and pick up a six-pack of Soggy Rodents, to celebrate the victory.
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- Popularity
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- Reviews
- 5
- Rating
- (3.40)
- Languages
- 5 — Dutch, English, Italian, Polish, Russian
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 11
- ASINs
- 6
