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Jokerman 8
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) "Live happy."
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) "Live happy."
- GenresFiction
280 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
1 person is currently reading
31 people want to read
About the author
Richard Melo
2 books32 followersRichard Melo [1968- ] landed in Portland, OR after fleeing San Francisco in the early 1990s. California was too costly for someone like Melo with such complete lack of ambition for anything other than the novels galloping along inside his head. While other young people flourished in San Francisco’s dot com boom (producing remarkable achievements like pets.com), Melo ran movie projectors and did AmeriCorps in Portland while scribbling away at his first novel. He has now lived in the beautiful Pacific Northwest long enough to have been caricatured on Portlandia (the episode titled ‘Grover’), a pleasure all the city’s residents will have had by the time the show reaches the mid-point of its fourth season. He has also published two novels.
Happy Talk A Novel is the book that Percival Everett compared to “a collision of William Gaddis, M*A*S*H, and The Beguiled.” It’s a laugher about star-crossed lovers and atomic-era subterfuge set in Haiti and Mexico during the 1950s. Look for it this summer in a print edition published by Red Lemonade. An early version is always available online at http://redlemona.de/richard-melo/happ...
Jokerman 8, Melo’s first novel, was published by Soft Skull Press in 2004. The novel stirs nostalgia for a wild 1980s radical environmental movement that never gets off the same ground its advocates are desperately trying to save. Al Gore and Bono were seen sporting copies, though no photographic evidence exists. (If Melo were prone to exaggeration, he would have said Bishop Tutu and Michael Stipe.) Tom Robbins did not write a book jacket blurb for Jokerman 8, although there was talk at the time.
A member of the National Book Critics Circle, Melo lost count of the number of book reviews he has written when the number passed 100. Most of the reviews appeared in Publishers Weekly, The Oregonian, Willamette Week, and The Believer. He also writes theatrical pieces, such as the new “Have Fun, Play Drums.”
Happy Talk A Novel is the book that Percival Everett compared to “a collision of William Gaddis, M*A*S*H, and The Beguiled.” It’s a laugher about star-crossed lovers and atomic-era subterfuge set in Haiti and Mexico during the 1950s. Look for it this summer in a print edition published by Red Lemonade. An early version is always available online at http://redlemona.de/richard-melo/happ...
Jokerman 8, Melo’s first novel, was published by Soft Skull Press in 2004. The novel stirs nostalgia for a wild 1980s radical environmental movement that never gets off the same ground its advocates are desperately trying to save. Al Gore and Bono were seen sporting copies, though no photographic evidence exists. (If Melo were prone to exaggeration, he would have said Bishop Tutu and Michael Stipe.) Tom Robbins did not write a book jacket blurb for Jokerman 8, although there was talk at the time.
A member of the National Book Critics Circle, Melo lost count of the number of book reviews he has written when the number passed 100. Most of the reviews appeared in Publishers Weekly, The Oregonian, Willamette Week, and The Believer. He also writes theatrical pieces, such as the new “Have Fun, Play Drums.”
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
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June 25, 2007A 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. 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 bears comparison to Edward Abbey's 1975 cult eco-classic The Monkey Wrench Gang and can best be summed up by its final (and shortest) sentence: “Live happy.” Jokerman 8 is about laughing more and taking the world less seriously; about learning to swim and fly; about following gentle impulses; about not sitting still while Earth’s flora and fauna are shaved, poisoned, and burned off the planet's surface; and about daughters and sons learning what it is they are about.
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 bears comparison to Edward Abbey's 1975 cult eco-classic The Monkey Wrench Gang and can best be summed up by its final (and shortest) sentence: “Live happy.” Jokerman 8 is about laughing more and taking the world less seriously; about learning to swim and fly; about following gentle impulses; about not sitting still while Earth’s flora and fauna are shaved, poisoned, and burned off the planet's surface; and about daughters and sons learning what it is they are about.
June 10, 2013
I could criticize aspects of this book, but why? I was thrilled while reading it - beginning to end.
Ostensibly about a group of SF State students who "did something" about their passions for the natural world - it is also about "that age" where this happens to people. We learn there are consequences to our actions that cannot be predicted, but does the confusion that creates stop you, or do you roll ahead? It was a great time in the characters' lives.
[I will not confine myself to anyone's rules. Obviously,I am not about to go out & set off bombs.I am offended that someone is telling me bout to, because that tells me she suspects I might.
But what if you go & hurt somebody?
Listen: I do not need a rule to tell me not to hurt anyone. If someone gets hurt, it will be an accident or in self-defense. If someone gets hurt, it will most likely be me. I may have a long way to go before turning 30, but I am an adult & I know better than to play with lives recklessly.]
Thank you random Green Apple employee who took the time to make the hand written card extolling this novel.
Ostensibly about a group of SF State students who "did something" about their passions for the natural world - it is also about "that age" where this happens to people. We learn there are consequences to our actions that cannot be predicted, but does the confusion that creates stop you, or do you roll ahead? It was a great time in the characters' lives.
[I will not confine myself to anyone's rules. Obviously,I am not about to go out & set off bombs.I am offended that someone is telling me bout to, because that tells me she suspects I might.
But what if you go & hurt somebody?
Listen: I do not need a rule to tell me not to hurt anyone. If someone gets hurt, it will be an accident or in self-defense. If someone gets hurt, it will most likely be me. I may have a long way to go before turning 30, but I am an adult & I know better than to play with lives recklessly.]
Thank you random Green Apple employee who took the time to make the hand written card extolling this novel.
November 11, 2008
A poetic call to arms and ode to deep ecology....with funny named characters, sinking ships and mantras aplenty.
Read
January 9, 2008Flipped through it and saw some weird font, things going on. Ran out of time and decided to send this back.
February 24, 2010
poetic and gritty rolled into a bear claw. Great with coffee.
November 28, 2008
"My first thought when I started reading Jokerman 8 was, 'Damnit, why didn't I write this book?' Then I set to work trying to figure out how to plagiarize it. Finally, I had sit back & give in to its crazy brilliance--which is all its own and unstealable. Written with love for all of us babies blinking in the silent home movies of the 60s and 70s, Jokerman 8 reminds us of who we meant to be and how we intended to live in this wack-ass world."
--Ariel Gore, author of Atlas of the Human Heart
"Like the Dylan songbook its title invokes, Jokerman 8 is freewheeling and deeply felt, moving and cymbal-crashing funny. It is also that rarity: an angry, politically-minded work of exuberant high spirits. A great first novel."
--Andrew Lewis Conn, author of P the Novel
. . . . . . .
Alix Ohlin in the September 2004 Believer:
[The Jokerman 8:] "are, in fact, the sweetest, most loving, most purely moral collection of characters on the planet. Born in the late sixties, they are heirs to all that's best from that time: the belief in social change and the spirit of rock and roll."
. . . . . . .
From the Portland Oregonian, November 21, 2004:
"'Jokerman 8' moves from voice to voice in an easygoing style and storylines are merged as Melo moves from the 1960s to the 1990s. U2 fans will enjoy Melo's subtle references. It's a wonderful book with rich, unforgettable characters and carries the message from beginning to end: Live happy."
. . . . . . .
From The Portland Mercury:
"Melo has a way of making the most preposterous event seem plausible, and Jokerman 8 avoids melodrama and never loses its carefreee spirit. In his first novel, Melo produces a work that is sweet and stirring, like taking a long weekend furlough in the Siskiyou Forest before setting some SUVs on fire."
. . . . . . .
From Cosmik, by Erick Mertz:
"Portland author Richard Melo has tapped into that consciousness with his sprawling novel of eco-revolutionaries, Jokerman 8 a work filled with ciphers and secrets and more than a few trap doors. The preoccupations of Melo's work evoke images of a handful of authors, most notably Edward Abbey, Jack Kerouac, Ivan Doig and Ken Kesey, luminaries of rollicking humor and keen observation."
. . . . . . .
From Resonance, Issue 43:
"Melo has the rhythm and grab-bag ambition of Tom Robbins."
. . . . . . .
From Rambles:
"Richard Melo manages to pull it all off. Music ties the adventures of the eco-saboteurs together, from the Beatles and a daughter named Jude to U2's Joshua Tree, complete with a several-page analysis of "With or Without You." The lyrics and allusions in Melo's prose made me want to run out and listen to these albums."
. . . . . . .
From Inkaholic.com:
This is one of those books that you read and you know you’ll be returning to in the future. I had to put it aside near the end because I couldn’t bear the thought of it being over. It’s that good.
The Jokerman 8 are kids of the sixties, young people roaming the back woods and liberal arts campuses of the 1980s, united by a love for nature and a despair for the values of modern culture. They believe in laughter, possibility, randomness, and the essential rightness of the universe. They are what today we would call eco-terrorists: they drive spikes into trees, they disable bulldozers, they sink whaling ships. As Melo explains in his manifesto-like introduction, they are the jokers in the deck of the Green movement.
Our narrator is a shadowy figure at the edge of the group. He introduces us to a cast of instantly likeable characters. Jude, the former track star, the quiet TS, the sad but determined Eleanor Cookee, all seem like people we might once have known, or perhaps met once and never saw again. The sense of time and place is flawless – Melo offers perfect descriptions of Oregon’s Kalmiopsis wilderness, as well as a passionate defense of U2’s Joshua Tree album. The story of the Jokerman group veers from farce to tragedy to adventure to the thrills and disappointments of real life, lived fully.
All this is very nearly beside the point. The remarkable thing about Jokerman 8, the thing that makes you want it to go on forever, is Richard Melo, his voice and his philosophy. He’s got a wise innocence, or what the Zen folks call “crazy wisdom”. He embraces the world with all its thorns and fights negative with positive. His characters transcend themselves again and again. The lyrical joy and optimism of his prose calls to mind the best passages from writers like Tom Wolfe, Tom Robbins, and Kurt Vonnegut, but Melo is at once tougher and more gentle than these writers.
The real surprise, to me, was putting down this beautiful, life-affirming novel and finding myself shaking with rage. Without fanfare, hyperbole, or rhetoric, Melo has brought forth the story of the rape of our natural world by forces who have always known exactly what they are doing. He writes with sympathy toward working loggers, sailors and crane operators, but makes no apologies for his conclusion : if we destroy ourselves as a species, all the “legitimate” issues of liberal politics (civil rights, international relations, poverty) don’t mean a damn thing. We are literally tearing away the ground beneath our feet.
A passionate protest, a moving examination of all different kinds of love, a wilderness adventure to beat the band, Jokerman 8 deserves to be read and reread by everyone who has ever been outdoors. - CK
--Ariel Gore, author of Atlas of the Human Heart
"Like the Dylan songbook its title invokes, Jokerman 8 is freewheeling and deeply felt, moving and cymbal-crashing funny. It is also that rarity: an angry, politically-minded work of exuberant high spirits. A great first novel."
--Andrew Lewis Conn, author of P the Novel
. . . . . . .
Alix Ohlin in the September 2004 Believer:
[The Jokerman 8:] "are, in fact, the sweetest, most loving, most purely moral collection of characters on the planet. Born in the late sixties, they are heirs to all that's best from that time: the belief in social change and the spirit of rock and roll."
. . . . . . .
From the Portland Oregonian, November 21, 2004:
"'Jokerman 8' moves from voice to voice in an easygoing style and storylines are merged as Melo moves from the 1960s to the 1990s. U2 fans will enjoy Melo's subtle references. It's a wonderful book with rich, unforgettable characters and carries the message from beginning to end: Live happy."
. . . . . . .
From The Portland Mercury:
"Melo has a way of making the most preposterous event seem plausible, and Jokerman 8 avoids melodrama and never loses its carefreee spirit. In his first novel, Melo produces a work that is sweet and stirring, like taking a long weekend furlough in the Siskiyou Forest before setting some SUVs on fire."
. . . . . . .
From Cosmik, by Erick Mertz:
"Portland author Richard Melo has tapped into that consciousness with his sprawling novel of eco-revolutionaries, Jokerman 8 a work filled with ciphers and secrets and more than a few trap doors. The preoccupations of Melo's work evoke images of a handful of authors, most notably Edward Abbey, Jack Kerouac, Ivan Doig and Ken Kesey, luminaries of rollicking humor and keen observation."
. . . . . . .
From Resonance, Issue 43:
"Melo has the rhythm and grab-bag ambition of Tom Robbins."
. . . . . . .
From Rambles:
"Richard Melo manages to pull it all off. Music ties the adventures of the eco-saboteurs together, from the Beatles and a daughter named Jude to U2's Joshua Tree, complete with a several-page analysis of "With or Without You." The lyrics and allusions in Melo's prose made me want to run out and listen to these albums."
. . . . . . .
From Inkaholic.com:
This is one of those books that you read and you know you’ll be returning to in the future. I had to put it aside near the end because I couldn’t bear the thought of it being over. It’s that good.
The Jokerman 8 are kids of the sixties, young people roaming the back woods and liberal arts campuses of the 1980s, united by a love for nature and a despair for the values of modern culture. They believe in laughter, possibility, randomness, and the essential rightness of the universe. They are what today we would call eco-terrorists: they drive spikes into trees, they disable bulldozers, they sink whaling ships. As Melo explains in his manifesto-like introduction, they are the jokers in the deck of the Green movement.
Our narrator is a shadowy figure at the edge of the group. He introduces us to a cast of instantly likeable characters. Jude, the former track star, the quiet TS, the sad but determined Eleanor Cookee, all seem like people we might once have known, or perhaps met once and never saw again. The sense of time and place is flawless – Melo offers perfect descriptions of Oregon’s Kalmiopsis wilderness, as well as a passionate defense of U2’s Joshua Tree album. The story of the Jokerman group veers from farce to tragedy to adventure to the thrills and disappointments of real life, lived fully.
All this is very nearly beside the point. The remarkable thing about Jokerman 8, the thing that makes you want it to go on forever, is Richard Melo, his voice and his philosophy. He’s got a wise innocence, or what the Zen folks call “crazy wisdom”. He embraces the world with all its thorns and fights negative with positive. His characters transcend themselves again and again. The lyrical joy and optimism of his prose calls to mind the best passages from writers like Tom Wolfe, Tom Robbins, and Kurt Vonnegut, but Melo is at once tougher and more gentle than these writers.
The real surprise, to me, was putting down this beautiful, life-affirming novel and finding myself shaking with rage. Without fanfare, hyperbole, or rhetoric, Melo has brought forth the story of the rape of our natural world by forces who have always known exactly what they are doing. He writes with sympathy toward working loggers, sailors and crane operators, but makes no apologies for his conclusion : if we destroy ourselves as a species, all the “legitimate” issues of liberal politics (civil rights, international relations, poverty) don’t mean a damn thing. We are literally tearing away the ground beneath our feet.
A passionate protest, a moving examination of all different kinds of love, a wilderness adventure to beat the band, Jokerman 8 deserves to be read and reread by everyone who has ever been outdoors. - CK
July 18, 2008
Richard Melo, Jokerman 8 (Soft Skull, 2004)
A friend of mine passed this onto me a couple of years ago. It took me a while to get round to actually picking it up, which I simply attributed to laziness and a pile of books to be read that grows to resemble the Matterhorn more with every passing day. Then I actually read the back copy, and realized that there was some sort of psychic vibration driving me away. Still, I'd promised myself (and my friend) that I'd give it a go, so I did. Silly me. I normally give books fifty pages before consigning them to a short life of flight out a window, but I broke the rule slightly on this one; a new chapter began at page forty-eight, and it was the longest chapter I'd encountered so far, so I catapulted it on its way after only forty-eight pages. Given the problems I had with the book, I can be relatively sure that it wasn't going to get any better.
Jokerman 8 tells the story, if the back copy is to be believed, of an ecoterrorist organization. I'm oversimplifying, of course, but there it is. But apart from a few words from the narrator, the first forty-eight pages takes place in flashback, to the leader of the group's (I'm supposing here, apologies if I'm incorrect) genesis and youth. I got a distinct sense of Mervyn Peake here (you know, the chap who wanted to write a thousand-page book whose protagonist turned two at the end?), but Richard Melo is by no stretch of the imagination Mervyn Peake; any humor and intrigue to be found in these pages was entirely lost on me.
My problem was less with the story itself than with the writing style. I was soured on the book from the opening pages, the "few words from the narrator" I mentioned earlier, which are just plain awful. I soldiered on, hoping that the writing would get better once we got into more structured territory, but it didn't; where in matters of form I was put in mind of Mervyn Peake, stylistically I got a very strong sense of Tom Robbins with a dash of Richard Brautigan (more in the sense of social consciousness than humor). Now, I'm perfectly willing to admit that my problem with the style could well be my failing, since I've loathed every Tom Robbins book I've ever tried to read, but once again I have to say: Richard Melo is no Tom Robbins. There's the same sense of absurdity in the situations and in the actions of the characters, but there's no real coherence to it. The most apt comparison I can some up with is that Melo is Sjoman's I Am Curious to Robbins being Makavejev's WR: Mysteries of the Organism. You might get a few chuckles amidst the vast confusion and stupidity of Sjoman, whereas Makavejev actually made a movie worth watching.
In the end, though, I couldn't take it, and out the window it went. Bloody horrible. (zero)
A friend of mine passed this onto me a couple of years ago. It took me a while to get round to actually picking it up, which I simply attributed to laziness and a pile of books to be read that grows to resemble the Matterhorn more with every passing day. Then I actually read the back copy, and realized that there was some sort of psychic vibration driving me away. Still, I'd promised myself (and my friend) that I'd give it a go, so I did. Silly me. I normally give books fifty pages before consigning them to a short life of flight out a window, but I broke the rule slightly on this one; a new chapter began at page forty-eight, and it was the longest chapter I'd encountered so far, so I catapulted it on its way after only forty-eight pages. Given the problems I had with the book, I can be relatively sure that it wasn't going to get any better.
Jokerman 8 tells the story, if the back copy is to be believed, of an ecoterrorist organization. I'm oversimplifying, of course, but there it is. But apart from a few words from the narrator, the first forty-eight pages takes place in flashback, to the leader of the group's (I'm supposing here, apologies if I'm incorrect) genesis and youth. I got a distinct sense of Mervyn Peake here (you know, the chap who wanted to write a thousand-page book whose protagonist turned two at the end?), but Richard Melo is by no stretch of the imagination Mervyn Peake; any humor and intrigue to be found in these pages was entirely lost on me.
My problem was less with the story itself than with the writing style. I was soured on the book from the opening pages, the "few words from the narrator" I mentioned earlier, which are just plain awful. I soldiered on, hoping that the writing would get better once we got into more structured territory, but it didn't; where in matters of form I was put in mind of Mervyn Peake, stylistically I got a very strong sense of Tom Robbins with a dash of Richard Brautigan (more in the sense of social consciousness than humor). Now, I'm perfectly willing to admit that my problem with the style could well be my failing, since I've loathed every Tom Robbins book I've ever tried to read, but once again I have to say: Richard Melo is no Tom Robbins. There's the same sense of absurdity in the situations and in the actions of the characters, but there's no real coherence to it. The most apt comparison I can some up with is that Melo is Sjoman's I Am Curious to Robbins being Makavejev's WR: Mysteries of the Organism. You might get a few chuckles amidst the vast confusion and stupidity of Sjoman, whereas Makavejev actually made a movie worth watching.
In the end, though, I couldn't take it, and out the window it went. Bloody horrible. (zero)
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