Wayfaring

Wayfaring is the latest of John Fraser's tour de forces in experimental fiction. It consists of three novellas, with the common theme of travelling in difficult places. 'Coming in to Land on Saturn' is the (fictionalised) account of the extreme physical and psychological experiences of a trainee Intelligence operative. In 'Sometimes the Watchman Is Drunk' four people travel round the ethnically fragmented regions of Southern Yugoslavia before the wars of the 1990s. Faced with the imminence of communist breakup, the four turn to self-inquiry, as the future becomes more troubled and unreadable. 'Coney Island' is the story of a godlike narrator who follows the fortunes of Stark and Pippa, unemployed but enterprising young friends. Many past and future scenarios of human destinies are explored.