Gilligan's Wake: A Novel
by Tom Carson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Tom CarsonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-01-04
ISBN: 031229123X
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Picador
Book Reviews of Gilligan's Wake: A Novel
Book Review: Toto...I think we're in America
Summary: 5 Stars
'Gilligan's Wake' by Tom Carson is either a self-absorbed, self-righteous diatribe disguised by hipster cool references, or it's one of the great epic allegories about what it should mean to be an American.
My vote is on the latter.
The book is like an onion. Peeling away each layer only presents you with more layers to with which to deal. I doubt that I will be able to understand all the references - and I pride myself on being the culture-vulture (always get the free drinks in the bar trivia games, I do.)
So, what do we have here?
Imagine if you will, a discourse on the history of the United States in the 20th Century. A history that is also a reflection on the weight of the mantle of becoming and enduring as agreat power. A reflection that is, perhaps, darkened by the fact that we're not living up to all we can be. Why? Well, think of Lord Acton's comment, "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
That's what Mr. Carson presents to us. A homily on how we are in dreadful danger of lettting the last best hope slip away. He screams at us to not let it happen. But, instead of presenting this in a conventional manner - something Paul Kennedy did with "Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: 1500 - 2000", Mr. Carson elects to follow the revolutionary approach of using that which we are as a weapon against ourselves. It's written in a prose style that is Joycean, but also holds elements of Marxian fervor (Groucho, not Karl), along with Lennonesque puns, and maybe even Faulkner-like stream of conscious ramblins.
America's history is told within the context of its culture...more precisely, it's pop culture. The story comes out in seven narratives. Each describes a piece of the whole, through interaction with events and persons. The seven narrators are very, very familiar to us; maybe more familiar than the so-called famous people with whom the interact.
Who are they? A former PT boat captain now running a day-cruise service; a rich couple; a movie actress; a scientist; a young woman and - very briefly - a possibly insane young man named Gil. Their stories depict their actions, to be sure. But, more importantly, they also depict the story of America's actions, whether good or bad, whether well intentioned or selfish. It's not always a pretty picture. We - as a people - have some things of which we should be ashamed.
But, we have more, much more, of which we should be proud. Proud enough to go on to redress the wrongs. And, at the end, when another symbol is brought before us - and we see she is in distress and needs our help - you cannot help but wonder at how much the author loves his country and wants to make it all that it can and should be.
Summary of Gilligan's Wake: A Novel
A kaleidoscopic novel about our last American century
A skipper plies the waters of the South Pacific, running ammunition and passing the time with navy buddies McHale and Jack Kennedy, remembering the sweet caress of Screw-Me Susie. A New York millionaire reunites with his prep school classmate Alger Hiss, and journeys to an unusual downtown cafe to meet a bearded friend. A young woman and her confidante Daisy Buchanan sink into the languor of the Hamptons and Provincetown. A buxom redhead from Alabam-don?t-give-a-damn travels to Hollywood, in search of fame and fortune. A charismatic professor assists Robert Oppenheimer with his desert calculations and is henceforth the author of every American political conspiracy. And Mary-Ann Kilroy leaves Russell, Kansas, for Paris and love, only to discover that you can never go home (nor leave the island).
But beneath these stories is the story of their author, an institutionalized shadow man who has twisted the histories of six characters into a pastiche of American history.
A skipper plies the waters of the South Pacific, running ammunition and passing the time with navy buddies McHale and Jack Kennedy, remembering the sweet caress of Screw-Me Susie. A New York millionaire reunites with his prep school classmate Alger Hiss, and journeys to an unusual downtown cafe to meet a bearded friend. A young woman and her confidante Daisy Buchanan sink into the languor of the Hamptons and Provincetown. A buxom redhead from Alabam-don?t-give-a-damn travels to Hollywood, in search of fame and fortune. A charismatic professor assists Robert Oppenheimer with his desert calculations and is henceforth the author of every American political conspiracy. And Mary-Ann Kilroy leaves Russell, Kansas, for Paris and love, only to discover that you can never go home (nor leave the island).
But beneath these stories is the story of their author, an institutionalized shadow man who has twisted the histories of six characters into a pastiche of American history.
In Gilligan's Wake, Esquire columnist Tom Carson takes a shaky premise---20th-century American culture as seen through the characters of Gilligan's Island--and turns it into a feverishly imaginative jigsaw puzzle of a book. Each castaway has been given a bizarre, interconnected history, which they recount in the book's seven chapters.
This fateful trip begins with Gilligan, who tells of his days writing beat poetry with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, only to awaken in a Minnesota mental institution. The Skipper relates how he spent World War II drinking cheap beer on PT boats with McHale and Jack Kennedy, who had "a grin like autumn leaves with a pack of Chiclets in the middle." In later stories, "beaming, imbecilic" Thurston recommends former chum Alger Hiss for his first government job, while spoiled Lovey has a morphine-inspired fling with The Great Gatsby's Daisy Buchanan. Brilliant bombshell Ginger ("My hips could have started the Timex folks weeping") lands a B-movie career in L.A., and a memorable night at Frank Sinatra's house. In between building the A-bomb, inventing the CIA, and generally dictating world events with his pals Roy Cohn and "Hank" Kissinger, the Professor bestows sexual favors on invalids. Finally, cheerful Mary-Ann, "the personification of America," leaves her Kansas home to attend the Sorbonne, where she meets a handsome Frenchman and discovers she is unable to lose her virginity.
Along the way, Gilligan's Wake's elusive meta-narrator reveals himself through clues and exposition in his hallucinatory retelling of American history. Carson propels the novel with astute cultural criticisms and energetic prose, including rapid-fire wordplay and narrative echoes that recall Thomas Pynchon. The result is a multifaceted, uncertain, and dazzling voyage. --Ross Doll
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