Tramping Solo

Fred Rosenblum is not going to let us off easy. He’s the anti-romantic — a blue-collar poet and bus driver’s son with an affinity for the Beats’ drug-induced poetic style. He saw combat in Vietnam, returned home and took to the road, destined for Alaska and positions as a deckhand on a commercial fishing boat, and a day laborer at the Sitka Pulp Mill — jobs that would sustain him when he wasn’t stoned out of his mind. Fred’s Alaska is not the nature writer’s Alaska, forcing us to look at how things were in this country during the 60’s and 70’s. It’s a road trip worth taking but don’t expect to be comforted — do expect to be unable to put this book down. — Tom Sexton, former Poet Laureate of Alaska whose latest collection is entitled Cummiskey Alley