Punk Rockwell

Rothenberg's first novel is a postmodern pastiche of American lust and squalor, framing an adventure tale set in post-Cold War Russia, the Florida Everglades, Mexico and on the California coast. Like the author (What the Fish Saw; Nightmare of the Violins), narrator Jeffrey Dagovich is a poet and an expert on orchids. Jeffrey is married to Emily, a sculptress with whom he runs an environmentalist foundation in Miami. The couple meet private detective Punk Rockwell in 1990, while camping in the Sequoia National Forest. The meeting may or may not be accidental: Emily knows a woman named Sue Cross, who is sponsoring a group of Russian refugees; Punk is working for the Soviets, trying to track down a missing shipment of caviar, originally intended as a gift for the president of the U.S. The caviar may be something more than fish eggs; it may, in fact, rescue Russia's collapsing economy. Punk's caviar tracking leads to an affair with Angelina, the Cuban wife of his Soviet contact, Stokov. When Jeffrey and Emily next meet Punk, in the Everglades, Punk has just rescued Angelina from two killers in Mexico City. Punk quickly seduces Emily; Emily and Jeffrey split up; Jeffrey has an affair with Angelina. While working on an environmental project in Mexico with Russian migr Igor Dorov, Jeffrey stumbles on the mysterious caviar and is held hostage by some Greeks--or are they Palestinians? The central mystery allows Rothenberg to reflect on destiny and ""all the things that feel too good, and take too much from you."" The vivid imagery approaches poetry at times, and though occasional attempts at clever wordiness and serpentine plot twists try the reader's patience, as the narrator himself tells us, ""Life's not simply plot."" This is an ambitious debut that delivers some engaging writing. Author tour. (July)