Gilligan's Wake, by Tom Carson

Retrieved from: the library
(031229123x)

Hello James Joyce-influence! There is something to be said for being the same age as the author of something like this book, because, even if you don't get the plot completely nailed down, you at least understand the allusions and puns. For example, from the first section:

Rats were patrolling Room 222, gunsmoke made the sea be yesterday, oh Dr. Kildare F. Troop I'm on to you: I know what the Mayo Clinic is.... When dawn wells up in the sky, she knots me together. Then we'd sit around in the Cleaver Ward in our robes and gowns.... The one across from us was called the Burt Ward, and every schizo in it wore a mask and hopped around like batty robins.

OK? Count the pop-culture references: I find at least 9, with a couple others buzzing around the perimeter that I can't place. But do you see what I mean about the plot? To be fair, this is the least intelligible chapter, kind of like someone who has done nothing but watch TV his entire life would sound like if you took him out of his living room.

The bones of this book are the seven characters on Gilligan's Island, appearing in the same order as the song: Gilligan, the Skipper, the Millioinaire, his wife, the movie star, the professor, Mary Ann. Kind of deflating:

Gilligan's nuts, as is obvious from the quote above

the Skipper is living in the past (World War II to be exact, where he meets JFK)

the Millionaire is entirely clueless (recommended Alger Hiss for a government job even though he knew Hiss was a Communist...)

his wife was a morphine addict in the 20s who married Thurston as a backstop when her father died

the movie star is from "Alabam'-goddamn' and is actually a B- and X-rated movie star whose biggest claim to fame is sleeping with Sammy Davis, Jr., in Sinatra's house in Palm Springs while her sister did JFK in the pool

the professor--one of the characters I liked best on the show--is a narcissitic sex-addict who worked on the Manhattan Project and other creepily nefarious underground government programs

Mary Ann is a perpetual virgin who left home for a year of college in France where she lost her virginity...the first time...and can't get back to her Kansas home because it's Brigadoon, so she just keeps wandering the globe losing her virginity time after time

Confused yet? This is defintely a book to read again, more closely, if I had time. I'd skip the movie star and professor chapters because they were terminally depressing. Intricate book, good for book clubs, if you have a group that's pretty avant.