Toofar, Oct 2004, 22.00, 328 pp.
ISBN: 0971880107
In 1969, Sam Altman struggles with Berkeley, protests, riots, police intervention, and all the other negativeness that society is unraveling. When the National Guard uses tear gas on students, Sam aids a young woman whose eyes were blinded temporarily. He feels that he knows Lindy although he believes this is the first time they met while she commiserates with his sadness. On Telegraph Avenue, she leaves her number on the cover of an Alaska Sportsman magazine.
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Sam falls in love with the mysterious Lindy, who understands his inner turmoil and encourages him to do something about it. He heeds her advice and heads to Alaska. He climbs Mount Wrangell by himself seeking to release his long buried inner self. No longer being Sam, he uses the name Ransom and begins to act more like a ram than a man. Ransom leaves the mountain feeling better, but yet incomplete as if his destiny still remains to be fullfiiled. With Lindy accompanying him on his second trek up the mountain, his transformation continues, but danger exists behind every inch of nature.
The story line has the audience pondering what is a human, what is civilization, and what is love as Sam changes into Ransom to complete his quest to determine who he is.
Harriet Klausner
The review of this Book prepared by Harriet Klausner
