Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Reviews of Sailor Song

Sailor Song
Sailor Song
Author: Ken Kesey
ISBN-13: 9780140139976
ISBN-10: 0140139974
Publication Date: 7/1/1993
Pages: 544
Rating:
  • Currently 3.1/5 Stars.
 11

3.1 stars, based on 11 ratings
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

3 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

reviewed Sailor Song on + 39 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
A sprawling, loose-limbed tale that veers between comedy and nightmare, a book as profane, exuberant, and brimming with life as a whole collection of old sea ballads.
Author of ,"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".
reviewed Sailor Song on + 15 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
An odd tale of the advenures of the "Backatcha Bandit" from the author of "One Flew Over the Cuckooo's Nest."

This book (and Ken Kesey's style) reminds me of books by Tom Robbins, such as "Villa Incognito." Check it out if you're a Robbins fan.
reviewed Sailor Song on + 19 more book reviews
30 years after his two great novels, Ken Kesey wrote his last great work. Sailor Song is set 30 years in the future (about now) in the coastal fishing town ofKuinak, Alaska. It is on the final edge of the Great American Frontier, as Kesey's other two great novels were in a sense. The characters are delightful. fishermen mainly, and fiercely independent. Kubiak is invaded suddenly by a huge Hollywood production company filming a beloved childrens' novel (Kesey wrote one) based on two native children. Kesey uses humor and outrage to opine on damage to the environment, native culture an
d the end of the frontier. His word plays and made up terms about technology should delight the reader. Close to JamescJoyce but not quite there.