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The Sourtoe Cocktail Club

The Yukon Odyssey of a Father and Son in Search of a Mummified Human Toe...and Everything Else
by Ron Franscell
The Sourtoe Cocktail Club: The Yukon Odyssey of a Father and Son in Search of a Mummified Human Toe...and Everything Else. Globe Pequot. Oct. 2011. c.256p. ISBN 9780762771561. pap. $18.95. TRAV
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Divorced after a 20-year marriage, true crime author Franscell (Delivered from Evil) hoped to reconnect with his teenage son on a road trip. He planned a journey via RV to the Yukon Territory to visit a saloon that serves up a cocktail containing a mummified human toe. Franscell writes of his fears that he will become his own father, who deserted the family when he was a baby and is now living in Panama as a character with a shady past. The dream trip of a lifetime was beset with troubles—unforeseen extra charges for the RV, seriously bad roads on the way to the Yukon, and a surly son who blasted death metal music to his father's annoyance. The sourtoe cocktail is almost a letdown.
VERDICT Readers of Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance will enjoy this story of a father and son on a journey, which is not as much about travel as life, family, and love. It should appeal to a wide audience.
Reviewed by Susan Belsky, Oshkosh P.L., WI , Oct 15, 2011
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