This book is half Pilgrim's Progress, half Divine Comedy, half outright allegory and complete fun. because.like the Hippocrene spring at the end of the book, I can tell you all about it, but you'll never *really* understand until you've sipped from its waters. This book is LOVED, and if you don't know about it you should (again) scroll up and purchase it now. It is hard to find because it comes and goes from print-this book's the size of a Michener novel-and most people get this white-knuckled grip on their second or third copy (the first ones always having been loaned out and NEVER returned). You'll find yourself merrily zipping along right through it. But it never slows down or gets tedious at all. The plot exists in part to hang all of these delightful songs (yes, songs), characters, rimshots, and, well, yes, references off of. I mean: reference hunting? What's fun about that? Pilgrim's Progress? Wasn't that one of those tedious books you read in high school (and hated)?Okay, it sounds boring or tedious or somehow suspect, but this book will make your cheek muscles hurt from the silly grin you'll wear while reading it. I can tell you all about this book (as anyone's review will do), but it'll just come off as hyperbole. Clarence Shandon, aka Silverlock, then scroll back up and add this book to your cart now. if you are one of the people unlucky enough not to know A. Okay, this book has 30-odd reviews, all of the with five stars, and some with titles like 'the best book ever written'. _Save this book for special quiet times when your spirit needs a recharge. In any case it is more heaven than purgatory for the reader. Perhaps the Commonwealth is a mask for purgatory, where lost souls are given a second chance at growth and redemption. Silverlock comes across as pretty unsympathetic at the beginning, but through experience and suffering in his travels from east to west he grows immeasurably in character. _It is more than just a survey of great characters and stories, however. That seems to be what the Commonwealth is all about- it is the Commonwealth of story telling, or imagination. This requires a suspension of belief, but given the excellent story telling that isn't too difficult. This is a place where all the great stories from myth, legend, and literature actually exist, somehow, side by side. _What Silverlock finds is the Commonwealth. As it is however, he doesn't struggle and exhaust himself- he merely surrenders himself to his fate and the currents. As he says- if he had cared to live, he would have died.

The freighter is shipwrecked after several days of running before a storm and the main character, Silverlock, finds himself cast adrift without a life boat. He boards a freighter as a passenger in order to try to put a little interest and excitement in his life. It starts with a middle-aged Chicagoan with a degree in Business Administration and a life that that has ceased to hold any meaning or charm for him.

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