The Spirit
By Thomas Page
1979 Hamlyn
Paperback, 252 pages
Two men are tracking Bigfoot
across the country. One is John Moon, a Native American Vietnam vet in search
of inner peace and to "learn his name", his place in life. Bigfoot is The Spirit that
will show him the way. John Moon is pretty much bonkers, by the way. The other
man is Raymond Jason, a moneybags adventurer whose prior expedition was marred
by a lethal Bigfoot encounter. He seeks not only revenge, but to show the world
that the monster exists. Raymond Jason is pretty much an asshole.
Our two main characters travel
state to state, even into British Columbia, tracking the beast. They finally
get up close and personal with their quarry at a mountain in Washington state.
Luckily for the reader there is a ski resort that has recently opened on
Bigfoot’s home base.
OK, I mean John Moon’s character
isn’t exactly enlightened by today’s standards, but I wouldn’t call it
completely un-PC. The fact that there is only one female character stands out
more for me. Hey, it was the 70s; a grain of salt is often needed. But the
story revolving around the two men and their searches is a tight thriller, full
of action and I blew through it quickly after deciding (about 50 pages in) that
it was pretty good. Some neat ideas about the origin of the Bigfoot species are
offered up, as well.
Page is no stranger to fantastic
fiction, having written The Hephaestus Plague in 1973. You know, the one
the movie Bug was based on with incendiary beetles? Based on that book
and this one, he is OK by me. The Spirit has been re-released by
Valancourt under Grady Hendrix’s Paperbacks from Hell banner, so it’s easy
enough to find now. And as Hendrix says about The Spirit, it’s a
rare Bigfoot novel with absolutely no Bigfoot rape scenes. Yay!
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