BigFoot Moon: formerly The American Quarterly Review: a Portland Novel

When beatnik sailor Bill Caxton waded ashore near Manzanita in 1958, he encountered an extraordinary local woman. 40 years later, he’s searching for the son they conceived. But the eccentric detective he’s hired must also solve a murder.

Given these distractions, Caxton hands over the operation of his literary magazine–The American Quarterly Review–to two newcomers, and they argue about how to revamp the magazine. Their next issue becomes this novel.

Readers fond of puzzles will find that piecing together the plot–veiled in a web of short stories, articles, and serial fiction–presents an intriguing challenge. Look for treatments of Sylvia Plath’s mother, William Butler Yeats, Hemingway and Gertrude Stein, and the origin of Longfellow’s Hiawatha.

Portlanders will recognize Manzanita, the American Stonehenge at Maryhill WA, Portland’s West Hills and the Pittock Mansion, the setting for the climax. Some may have heard the story of Sir Francis Drake’s alleged landing on Oregon’s coast in 1579, or recognize Portland in 1895–to which one character finds himself transported.