Swan Song: An Odyssey

Alther (Original Sins) strains for comic effect in her latest, a story about a latter-day ship of fools. Jessie Drake is a 60-something Vermont physician who gets over the death of her longtime lesbian partner, Kat, by taking a job as a doctor on a cruise ship. She is recruited by a former lover, Ben, the ship’s head doctor, who makes it clear that he still carries a torch for Jessie despite the fact that she is gay. Ben is soon sleeping with Mona, an opera singer who provides shipboard entertainment. When Jessie and Mona become friends, they form an extremely awkward triangle with Ben. Alther also casts an eye on fellow passenger Gail Savage, a former Miss Florida Power and Light, who carries on with a crew member right under the nose of her husband. Over the course of the voyage, Jessie has to contend with the death of one passenger, the disappearance of another, an attack by pirates, and the rescue of a boatload of refugees, all the while dealing with the nagging suspicion, gleaned from her late partner’s journal, that Kat might have been unfaithful. While the disparate plot elements don’t quite cohere amid the cartoonish set pieces, Alther makes Jessie a winning and funny travel companion . Unfortunately, this voyage goes nowhere. (June)