The Plover

October 28, 2013
The latest from Oregonian literary luminary Doyle (Mink River) is an uncomfortable mix of nautical exactitude and magical realist plotting. Declan O’Donnell, a middle-aged fisherman in contemporary Oregon with nothing to tie him to the land, decides one day to set out alone across the open ocean in the modified fishing boat Plover. This early section is engrossing, with Declan detailing his preparations, confronting the ocean’s vastness, and going slightly crazy talking to seagulls. The book starts to falter when Declan, visiting the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i for provisions, discovers an old friend, Piko, and Piko’s young daughter, Pipa, waiting to join his crew. Pipa has been left unable to speak after being hit by a school bus but, once aboard, demonstrates an extraordinary ability to communicate with birds. Soon a cast of other eccentrics have joined the crew, spoiling Declan’s hope for solitude, while the ship is put in danger by repeated run-ins with a mysterious pirate trawler. Every sentence Doyle writes about the ocean smacks of authenticity, which makes these additional plot threads seem all the more incongruous. When the novel focuses on Declan and the elements, the results are gripping, but when it strives to be a modern-day South Seas yarn, the results quickly go adrift.

Starred review from February 1, 2014
Doyle (Mink River, 2010, etc.) sets off with Declan O'Donnell, he of "flinty soul" and "salty confidence," sailing along the 45th parallel across the wide Pacific. In near stream of consciousness, wave upon wave of words tumbles out in long, beautifully rendered, description-packed sentences, running on and on, as Declan, captain of the Plover, "a roomy coffin," skims across water two miles deep and weighing "about eighty quintillion tons." The narrative is rife with allusions, symbolism and metaphor, as Declan first encounters the Tanets, a tramp freighter/pirate ship/smuggler captained by amoral Enrique. Declan next tires of 45th parallel weather, bears south and finds an isolated island. There, he's met by his Oregon friend, Piko, who knew Declan would stop there, even if Declan did not. Beloved wife dead of cancer, Piko boards the Plover with Pipa, his brain-injured, paralyzed daughter, who's still "sending her large spirit out exploring in ways and realms she has not yet tried to explain." Pipa chirps, whistles and peeps, and birds flock to the little boat. The Plover is again stopped at sea by the Tanets. Enrique needs a navigator and shanghais Piko. Declan follows, rescues Piko, and then finds that Enrique's mysterious, giant, androgynous crewman, Taromauri, has slipped aboard the Plover. Taromauri is searching for her sea-swallowed daughter. Shadowed by a single gull, "one of the thirteen...one of the shining ones," a spirit of life's energy focusing on Pipa, the Plover's crew gains a boy from northern forests; Tungaru is "minister for fisheries and marine resources and foreign affairs," exiled because of his utopian politics. After a fiery confrontation with the Tanets, Declan and company sail "[f]ree as air" on "[t]he continent of the sea." A rare and unusual book and a brilliant, mystical exploration of the human spirit.

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February 15, 2014
A jack of all literary trades, Doyle (Leaping: Revelations & Epiphanies, 2013) augments his impressive oeuvre with this whimsical dreamscape of a nautical adventure about desolation and friendship. To escape his haunting loneliness, Declan O Donnell sets out on the high seas with no intention of returning to his Oregon home. In fact, he has no intentions at all, except to wander west and then west to distance himself from his troubling past. With little company besides a copy of conservative orator Edmund Burke's speeches and the occasional gull, Declan drifts into the Pacific void to discover not solitude but unlikely companionship. Reluctantly agreeing to aid his recently widowed friend, Piko, and his disabled daughter, Declan finds himself extemporizing fatherhood and pursuing pirates when Piko gets kidnapped. As the adventure escalates, so does the number of his shipmates, humans and sea creatures alike. In stylized prose with frequent nods to Coleridge, Melville, and Stevenson, Doyle's surreal world is alive with vivid characters, mysterious birds, and lyrical philosophy about contentment. A joyous journey of discovery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

November 1, 2013

Editor of Portland Magazine, Doyle has written 13 books of fiction, poetry, and essays but came to my attention only with the original and wittily lyrical 2010 novel Mink River--which actually caught the attention of plenty of readers, becoming an Indie Next Pick and selling well nationally. At first glance, this new work looks to be of the same high caliber. Declan O Donnell aims to escape his tired life by sailing west from Oregon into the Pacific on his boat, The Plover. Instead of finding peace and quiet, though, he encounters a crew whose various members each have their own issues. It's all about expecting the unexpected; expect this to be good.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2014

At the end of Doyle's previous novel, Mink River, Declan O'Donnell sets sail from the Oregon coast with an unwritten future. This is a detailed account of that voyage. At the outset of his journey, Declan has no destination, just a simple desire to live out childhood dreams on the high seas. His only companion on the trip is a watchful seagull with which he shares his philosophical musings on life. These moments of Melvillian pondering hint at adventure meaning more to Declan than a mere boyhood fantasy. His solitude is short-lived, though, as the tiny boat is slowly inhabited by an eclectic cast of characters. From castaways to a former friend, the crew on the ship become a surrogate family for Declan, ultimately forcing him to question his rugged individualism. VERDICT Doyle (editor, Portland Magazine) has written a novel in the adventurous style of Jack London and Robert Louis Stevenson but with a gentle mocking of their valorization of the individual as absolute. Readers will enjoy this bracing and euphoric ode to the vastness of the ocean and the unexpectedness of life. [See Prepub Alert, 10/14/13.]--Joshua Finnell, Denison Univ. Lib., Granville, OH

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2014

At the end of Doyle's previous novel, Mink River, Declan O'Donnell sets sail from the Oregon coast with an unwritten future. This is a detailed account of that voyage. At the outset of his journey, Declan has no destination, just a simple desire to live out childhood dreams on the high seas. His only companion on the trip is a watchful seagull with which he shares his philosophical musings on life. These moments of Melvillian pondering hint at adventure meaning more to Declan than a mere boyhood fantasy. His solitude is short-lived, though, as the tiny boat is slowly inhabited by an eclectic cast of characters. From castaways to a former friend, the crew on the ship become a surrogate family for Declan, ultimately forcing him to question his rugged individualism. VERDICT Doyle (editor, Portland Magazine) has written a novel in the adventurous style of Jack London and Robert Louis Stevenson but with a gentle mocking of their valorization of the individual as absolute. Readers will enjoy this bracing and euphoric ode to the vastness of the ocean and the unexpectedness of life. [See Prepub Alert, 10/14/13.]--Joshua Finnell, Denison Univ. Lib., Granville, OH

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.