The NY Times has a review: ‘A Salty Piece of Land’: Wise Old Jimmy Buffett (you need to register to see the review)
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”A Salty Piece of Land” is a tangy tale, at times turbulent and unpredictable as the ocean, at times as wistful as the whitecaps on the waves. Every book, I suppose, can be said to be a voyage of words, but in this novel the reader will encounter a colorful crew indeed: cowboys and Indians, sailors and pilots of seaplanes, treasure hunters, ghosts, and, of course, those ubiquitous pirates. Yet the book revolves around an old abandoned lighthouse on the mythical island of Cayo Loco, a lighthouse that, in true Stevensonian fashion, becomes something of a spiritual beacon in a world remarkable for its unwillingness to be led to the light.
Buffett knows better than most that life is all about how we mix our metaphors. And yet the nonfictional aspects of the book appear to be as grounded and well constructed as, for want of a better image, a lighthouse at sea. Buffett has clearly researched his subject. But I suspect the true research for this novel has already been done on land and air and sea in all the years the author has spent as a highly active participant-observer of life. What makes the incredible so credible to the reader, what makes the old lighthouse shine again, is the spiritual savvy Buffett has gleaned from the beach of life as he’s wandered in the raw poetry of time. [/i:9f5ad34688]