Snakewalk

A hell-raising fisherman who has ``a problem with authority,'' Patrick Todd is blinded in a boating accident and enrolls in a school for blind adults, or ``blinks'' as he calls them. An extremely sharp fellow, he readily learns to cane and read braille, refusing to let his loss of sight cramp his style. He leads friends from the school, Cole, Bernie and ElRay, and his girlfriend, Geri, on expeditions to San Francisco's bars, forays that don't always end well, but keep Patrick sane. Like Ken Kesey, Wheeler finds a microcosm of modern society in Patrick's new, limited com munity at ``blink school.'' Unlike Kesey's McMurphy, however, Patrick is not at war with any single individual, but struggles instead, and with considerable success, to keep his place in the ``regular,'' or sighted, world. Raunchy, quick-witted and brave, Patrick Todd is a character to remember. His appearance bodes well for first novelist Wheeler. 35,000 first printing. (June)