A west coast posse of forest radicals based out of San Francisco State University, Jokerman engages in a wild array of pranks — they sink whaling ships at harbor in Iceland, skydive into the winter forest of British Columbia on a bend to save a pack of wolves from a government-sponsored slaughter, and stage a Tree-In in a southern Oregon old-growth forest where it is believed the first pine trees evolved. Jokerman spikes trees, jerryrigs tractors, spoils traps, and conserves enough energy to laugh and drink beer at the end of the day. In numerous subplots encompassing both present and past, a young husband flees San Francisco for Portland during the Draft, another young husband sets himself on fire in front of what he thinks is Robert MacNamara’s office in the Pentagon, and the Yippies succeed in levitating the Pentagon, inspiring the Jokerman Eight to respond by building a pyramid next to the Pentagon.
Written in a polyphonous prose where every tendency is contrapuntal to another–rollicking yet meditative, whirlwind yet lax, lush yet stark, ghostly yet grounded, complex yet accessible–the novel can best be summed up by its final (and shortest) sentence: “Live happy.”
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