MR. SWEETCHEEKS IN ALASKA

A Chicago felon with the unlikely name of Alan Sweetcheeks has just been released from Stateville Prison, where he served time for homicide. Chicago had been rough; he scavenged for scrap metal for a living before his prison stay. Now, he is heading to Boon, Alaska, a small town where a shop owner named Mr. Tinsel has promised to get him a job; he doesn’t know what kind of work awaits him (“Chewing on walrus hides to make them soft enough for shoes?”). Alan is a nice enough guy, but he has killed someone, and even kindly Mr. Tinsel is a bit reticent. But he helps Alan to get a job dipping ice cream bars at a dairy, and Alan gets to know the quirky townsfolk of Boon. There’s Darlene Sandusky, a natural beauty who is the secretary to the district attorney, and Cal, the local madam, who Alan knows is hoarding cash to hide it from the IRS. Boon has its sketchy side, and it’s not long before Alan gets bonked on the head. Kinerk, himself a native of Alaska, brings the isolated small-town setting to life by filling the story with idiosyncratic characters who aspire to be genteel but are as rugged as the surrounding mountain peaks. The protagonist, a likable ex-con (“Yes, I am an admitted killer, but I am also very nice”), endearingly stumbles through the story, hoping to make something of the town’s opportunities (if it has any). The novel’s narrative voice is at once smart and funny, which does not take away from an overarching seriousness when the story calls for it. The caper plot is slow to get going, but when it does it proves to be a rustic delight.