In the restless American search for the vagabond freedom of "the West," from the beginning, we encountered obstacles--the Appalachians, the Mississippi, the Rockies and, finally, the Pacific coast--until, refusing to let something like an ocean stop us, we proceeded to gather up Alaska and Hawaii. What is the next western frontier? P. F. Kluge, novelist (Gone Tomorrow) and travel journalist, knows just the place: the island of Saipan in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas.
A tiny island occupied in succession by the Spanish, Germans, Japanese and Americans, Saipan is the perfect setting for Kluge's microcosmic tale of greed, power, provincial politics, immigration and arrogance--all running roughshod over paradise. His story opens with the arrival of four outsiders on the midnight flight from Guam, each searching for that mystical fresh Manifest Destiny start to their lives. Academic Stephanie Warner accepts an appointment at Saipan's small college to put some distance from her faltering marriage. Travel writer George Griffin is desperate for a story beyond resort fluff. Kahn is a Bangladeshi hungry for a decent job. Max Brodie is a developer with a nose for money.
Kluge's novel follows an increasingly entangled plot as it alternates among the quartet's voices, with interruptions by diatribes from an anonymous local blogger, The Master Blaster, self-appointed guardian of the island's soul. From the often amusing clutter of all these voices, Kluge not only crafts a first-rate mystery, but also demystifies the ways our personal histories and ambitions seem inevitably to debunk even the noblest of our myths. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.