D.B.: A Novel (about getting away with a lot of money)
D.B.: A Novel. By Elwood Reid. New York : Doubleday, 2004. 356 p.
Recommendation submitted by:
Sean Lanksbury, NW and Special Collections Librarian, Washington State Library.
If you were alive in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970’s, doubtlessly you recall the high altitude heist of D.B. Cooper. I lived near Camas, Washington, supposed drop point of our region’s most notorious skyjacker. My friends and I playacted endless what-if scenarios involving Cooper that often included a Sasquatch (because what northwest kid wouldn’t add a bigfoot?) for good measure in the forests of Southwest Washington for hours on end.
So what if “Dan Cooper” actually made off with the $150,000 that didn’t wash up on the shore of the Columbia River? D.B., by Elwood Reid, imagines the back-story and the aftermath of Cooper’s heist, from Cooper’s perspective, as a soft-boiled satire for the changing definition of gender and responsibility in the late twentieth century. The plot follows the story from Cooper’s perspective as he plans the heist and deals with the consequences and costs of his crime and exile. A parallel plot follows a recently retired Federal Bureau of Investigation investigator – originally assigned to the case – who now reflects on his career and evaluates his life and relationships as he heads into uncharted personal realms.
Author Reid’s tight, readable style makes for a clever piece of speculative fiction that mixes dark comedy with unsentimental reflection on modern masculinity.
ISBN-13: 978-0385497381
Available at the Washington State Library, NW 813.6 REID 2004.
Not available as an eBook, talking book, or as a Braille edition.
Title contains adult themes.
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