From Publishers Weekly
Among the many post-Holocaust novels, a subgenre has emerged on the theme of Huck Finn after the apocalypse. First novelist Berman's boy on a raft is Max Debris, a young white jazz saxophone player who stays alive thanks to Charles Dewey, alias Wolf, a black civil engineer. While nuclear winter sets in and the few survivors keep busy shooting each other, Wolf follows a private agenda on their cross-country trek, stopping at every 7-Eleven store to look for signs of the long-lost brother he's sure is still alive. As in Twain, the two move from civilization to wilderness and back, unhappy with each. Berman's humorous, ironic take on his serious subject recalls Richard Brautigan and Donald Barthelme as he compares the two wanderers to hapless 19th century pioneers and envisions a future demagogue whose sermons take their texts from Honeymooners episodes. Amusing and inventive if somewhat relentless in its wisecracking.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
In this audacious depiction of the United States after a nuclear war, white jazz sax man Max Debrick climbs out of the rubble of Manhattan. He reaches New Jersey before meeting another human, "Wolf" Dewey, a black civil engineer obsessed with searching looted 7-Eleven stores for his brother. They forge westward, their friendship deepening as they face the unknownand nuclear winter. They find the brother, demented and ruling a weird community of religious slaves set up on a Utah military base. This first novel has intelligence and sparkle, but the story is contrived and preposterous. Some arresting historical accounts provide counterpoint to the narrative, and the parts about jazz ring true. Vexing and entertaining, this might catch on with readers ready for a mix of macho harshness and gallows humor. William A. Donovan, Chicago P.L.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
