The Plover by Brian Doyle

Published by Thomas Dunne Books April 8, 2014

The Plover is a converted trawler skippered by Declan O'Donnell, who departs from Oregon with ample supplies of rice and limes, spare parts and the speeches of Edmund Burke. "Destination? Unknown. Agenda? Don't sink." Declan wants to pursue an "aimless amble on the glee of the sea" but events keep interfering with his lack of ambition. Perhaps Declan will find a reason to chart a course after all.

The Plover is a playful voyage through the seas of language. Brian Doyle's inventive prose drifts and floats like Declan's boat, riding the peaks of swells, surging ahead and then meandering as if driven by fickle winds and hidden currents. Owing to Declan's quirky commentary, the story is very funny, but the novel is also a celebration of everything that is natural and glorious: birds, stars, fish, air, islands, sounds, almonds, leaves, storms, scents, dogs, the vast Pacific ... and even people, who always have the potential to be glorious when they stop thinking of themselves "as kings and conquerors" and instead think of themselves as a single link in a vast network of people.

As for the plot ... well, there is one, but, like Doyle's prose, it's meandering and full of detours. Declan picks up a crew of sorts -- an old friend wrestling with his own demons, the friend's disabled daughter, other strays -- and every now and then a mysterious Russian ship makes an appearance, skippered by a man named Enrique who kidnaps his crew members from other ships. In addition to occasional encounters with Enrique, the story follows a couple of other lives that intersect in ways that show us that, for all its size, this is indeed a small world, at least for those who choose to explore it. There are occasional mystical elements to the story that emphasize one of the novel's themes -- there is much in the world that we do not understand and it is arrogant to pretend that we have more knowledge than ignorance.

Road novels and their nautical equivalents are usually journeys of self-discovery. The Plover is that, but it is also a journey of other-discovery, as Declan learns that the isolation he craves might not be what he needs. Approaching thirty, Declan is trying to abandon control of his life, to let the sea chart his destiny. Yet as he tries to escape responsibility, he repeatedly finds himself forced into responsible positions. Despite his desire for isolation, he is reminded of the value of others, even those who seem at first blush to have little value, and so comes to recognize his own value. He rescues people and, in the process, is rescued. The Plover is light-hearted but the story, like the Pacific, has remarkable depth.

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