The Sun s Gold is a strongly atmospheric

novel, one that envelops you, sweeps

you into another world, turns you into

the eyes, ears, mind, and heart of the

protagonist.

He is an Arkansas mountain youth

who, after finding seashells atop the

mountains, hitches and walks 1800 miles

to ship aboard the merchant vessel

Ekonk. Known as "the Kid," he carries

only his sea bag and an Ishmael curiosity

to see the watery parts of the globe.

Once the Ekonk is under way, the Kid

finds mucb to learn -- about the ship,

the sea, and the men who have learned

"to walk the sea." His teachers are a

strange lot of hardened veterans: the

aged bosun, the wildly tattooed mate, the

drunken captain, and the various crew

members -- Red, Gus, Gene, Blackie, and

the mysterious "Satchel Man." Most are

pariahs, brutish and profane men who

regard shore leave as an interim in which

to get drunk, brawl, take a woman, then

return to the ship and be under way to

live the only life they know.

The Kid s odyssey aboard the Ekonk

begins as a youthful adventure but be-

comes a voyage to self-discovery. In a

distant and exotic

love, death, and the

port he discovers

awful truth of time

passing.

Written in prose deceptively quiet and

superbly controlled, salty yet lyric, The

Sun s Gold moves with the power of the

wind across the sea. It is a worthy addi-

tion to the shelf where the sea stories of

Joseph Conrad reside.