on-the-fringe

Sweeney On-the-Fringe is a short, sweet little novel by Dave Robinson, which states on the cover that it is "Based on the notes of Owen Kivlin" <--you can see it right there * who is the narrator of the book, and the 'compiler' of the various stories about Sweeney, and poems written by Sweeney, which were either either left around, or more often mailed to the narrator by Sweeney, from some exotic local where Sweeney was invariably surfing and relaxing. The motivation behind the telling, is that no one has seen or heard from Sweeney at the time Owen Kivlin begins to try and figure out both where Sweeney may have gone, and why he left. He attempts to figure out the mystery of Sweeney by trying to discover more about him; a folk tale of their fictional Massachusetts, seaside town of Seawell, located at the mouth of the Merrimack River. 

The small town, we soon find out, is actually a small city, and the name, its location--and the author's home town--all point to Seawell being inspired by Lowell, Massachusetts, combined with some other small, New Englandy towns. The Merrimack River actually meets the Atlantic between Newburyport and Salisbury, Massachusetts. Neither of which is a city, nor has a university, and I don't think either has an airport [nope, hold it, looks like Plum Island has a small airport.] Plum Island is a pretty big island that runs north-south along the coast of Newburyport, and apparently, you can surf there, as well as north of the river's mouth, at Salisbury Beach.

Sweeney is the story of a local legend. That guy from a few years ago, who always seemed to be able to do whatever he wanted, and no one could figure out how, and most couldn't figure out why. The story is told through a series of transcribed interviews with, and letters from, people who knew Sweeney; interspersed with Sweeney's own poems. The interesting part is that Sweeney knew a lot of people, from different generations and walks of life, and they all knew different parts of his story, but none knew his whole story. And even by the end of the novel, Owen Kivlin still doesn't know all there is to know about this enigmatic man who touched all of their lives, in profound and subtle ways.

In the 'About the Author' blurb in the backmatter, the author indicates that this 2007 novel is the first in a trilogy. A quick look around the interwebs turns up only this: Sweeney In Effable, which is a single volume containing five books, one of which is Sweeney On-the-Fringe. The description of Effable on it's Amazon page includes this line:

"This contemporary protagonist is based on the ancient Irish legend from Trevor Joyce's translation, Sweeny Peregrine, with a nod to Seamus Heaney's Sweeney Astray." 

So there is a tradition for this slippery, Loki-esque or Pan-like character. This one was a fun ride.

Read this Book.

* Another thing you can see on the cover, is the horrible font they used for the title, which unfortunately, follows us throughout the book. I was thinking, what does on-the-Frince even mean?