Robert Crews
1994
First Published
3.54
Average Rating
240
Number of Pages
With the humor, irony, and veteran story-telling that have made him one of America's most respected novelists, Thomas Berger has written a modern-day Robinson Crusoe. In his latest work, Thomas Berger takes us on an odyssey in the wilderness that becomes a mythic adventure. Robert Crews, middle-aged, alcoholic, his life in shambles, joins three pals on a fishing expedition that meets with catastrophe. The plane that was to take them to a northern fishing lodge crashes. Robert Crews is the sole survivor. In a wilderness for which he has no preparation, Crews must become Crusoe. Forced into sobriety, he must confront not only an alien environment, but all the specters of his past: his broken marriages, his aimlessness, his profound loneliness, his failed existence. As he taps into resources he didn't know he had, Crews gradually becomes, for the first time, committed to his survival - and, eventually, to the survival of his companion, Friday. The accidental encounter with Friday, who is on the run from her violent husband, elicits Crews' feelings of protectiveness and compassion, and also love. Through her, Crews discovers his competence and manhood. This is a tale of more than survival - it is about transformation, commitment, and the possibility of redemption.
Avg Rating
3.54
Number of Ratings
46
5 STARS
13%
4 STARS
39%
3 STARS
37%
2 STARS
11%
1 STARS
0%
goodreads
Author
Thomas Berger
Author · 24 books
Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database. Thomas Louis Berger was an American novelist, probably best known for his picaresque novel Little Big Man, which was adapted into a film by Arthur Penn. Berger explored and manipulated many genres of fiction throughout his career, including the crime novel, the hard-boiled detective story, science fiction, the utopian novel, plus re-workings of classical mythology, Arthurian legend, and the survival adventure. Berger's use of humor and his often biting wit led many reviewers to refer to him as a satirist or "comic" novelist, though he rejected that classification.
