The Pagan User's Manual
a novel by
Salmon Jack
In the sky, on the sea, through corporate goo or in just day-to-day living, life is all about navigation. Aids to navigation exist all over but they have to be located. Inversely, there are hazards to navigation like mountains hidden in clouds, submerged rocks, clueless managers and other dimwitted people that must be dealt with.
Gleaning just enough knowledge out of a failed college education, Ian Young moves through corporations, oceans and atmospheres teaching clueless rich people how to operate their expensive yachts and planes, and feeds the addiction that businesses have for information. He delves into his own philosophy on the meaninglessness of life by relating his experiences in flying, sailing and computer technology well before the age of gadget distraction.
Unencumbered by the constraints of society and family, he is free to pass through walls that repress most people.
Salmon Jack puts his cynical view of society to work in "The Pagan User's Manual." A triangle in the eastern Pacific Ocean formed by Alaska, Mexico and Hawaii serves as a backdrop for stories about many people who would have been better off had they stayed home. Salmon also derides the corporate lunacy that grows exponentially with the size of the organization. "The Pagan User's Manual" is one big incompetency festival that doesn't exclude the protagonist, Ian Young.