Blue Road to Atlantis
 Jay Nussbaum
 (Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
 2002 Warner Books
  ISBN: 0446528218

A huge marlin, called Old Fish, hoping to save the world, swims to Atlantis, just ahead of a deadly Red Tide.

The flyleaf of Blue Road to Atlantis states: “From the unlikely hero of this achingly beautiful tale comes an inspirational guide to life in the tradition of Ishmael & Watership Down...” & that's not even the half of it, for within Jay Nussbaum's debut novel, there is also a refreshing irreverence, a guileless take on the gravitas we invest in our philosophies, & a solemnity with the keen edge of encroaching apocalypse.

Blue Road to Atlantis is about the symbiosis of sea & sky, relationships & thoughts, flesh & spirit. It is also about our ability to wander & wonder, our tiny fears & huge worries. It is food for the hungry & a water for the thirsty--most of all, it is a radiant read that will linger long in your heart & mind, & the stories Fishmael tells will unfold in your life, as you look through refreshed eyes.

Now I'm not a fisherwoman, nor am I driven by The Quest to know The Mystery, however, I love good writing & Jay Nussbaum's is flawless. Told in the voice of Fishmael, a thoughtful Remora -- Echeneidae (who some call a marlinsucker), we gain a view of life on earth, through his perceptions, petulance & philosophies, as he accompanies Old Fish on his pilgrimage.

There we dive deep & keep company with a compassionate predator, to battle with viperfish, to flow along the Gulf currents, choosing meals, sleeping, dreaming that this will be the year when all complications & confusions will be disregarded & Old Fish will finally make his pilgrimage to Atlantis.

& then a Hammerhead shark brings the dreaded news that a Red Tide is forming off the coast of Africa, & in a cacophony of panic, all the fish of the Gulf elect Old Fish as their president, king & predator who will save them from this threat.

& thus it is we follow Fishmael & Old Fish as they set out for Atlantis, in their search for the sky & their intent to save the world, & find answers to those Big Questions that have plagued us down the ages.

Blue Road to Atlantis is enchanting & terrifying, remote & romantic--in the old-fashioned sense of that word.

Definitely a keeper!
(02/09/03)

Rebecca