Baker's Gold

By R.J. Cohn

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0965681181
• ISBN13: 9780965681186
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Four Seasons Pub
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.8" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

Dazzling storytelling --Powerful intrigue in the Northwest

This book really won me over and took me in more deeply than anything I can remember reading in years. I honestly had a hard time breaking away from it and putting it down. It was like being on a train travelling through a lush, tropical landscape that keeps getting more spectacular and phenomenal the farther you go. From the first sentence to the very last, I was hooked and I felt as if the author had me under a spell. I fell in love with these strange and at time unforgettable characters, the graceful yet breakneck speed in which this story poured out, and how everything just enfolded. This is the first work of serious fiction I've come across with back-to-the-land type characters, some of them living in geodesic domes with leaking skylights, trying to make a go of it on 20 acres in the middle of the Olympic Peninsula until all sorts of hysterical zanniness, mayhem and a 40-year old deadly mystery consume their lives. It's funny, absorbing, wild, and intense, and the writing is crisp and riveting and at times acrobatic, packed with nifty metaphors the likes of which I've never come across that make reading this book a real joy. I once spent a month on Orcus Island in the San Juan's off the Puget Sound, somewhat in the vicinity of where this story is set. The author's descriptions of the Olympic Peninsula are so visual and sensual I thought I was almost looking at a snapshot of Orcus. I felt I could practically reach out and touch each fern and leaf in the forest and could see the flight of sparrows over the long rows of Douglas firs. I found it uncanny how the simplicity and beauty of his words could evoke such a detailed picture of the area. He is quite an artist and a naturalist with a deep love for unspoiled lands of the Northwest. This book is really one that everyone should read. It's dazzling.

Terrific story and writing--I lost my heart to this book--

This book really won me over and took me in more deeply than anything I can remember reading in years. I honestly had a hard time breaking away from it and putting it down. It was like being on a train travelling through a lush, tropical landscape that keeps getting better the further you go. From the first sentence to the very last, I was hooked and I felt as if the author had me under a spell. I fell in love with these strange and at times unforgettable characters, the graceful yet breakneck speed in which this story poured out, and how everything just enfolded like the petals of a flower. This is the first work of serious fiction I've come across with back-to-the-land type characters, some of them living in geodesic domes with leaking skylights, trying to make a go of it on 20 acres in the middle of the Olympic Peninsula until all sorts of hysterical mayhem and a 40 year old deadly mystery consumes their lives. It's funny, absorbing, wild, and intense, and the writing is crisp and riveting and at times acrobatic, packed with nifty metaphors the likes of which I've never come across that make reading this book a real joy. I once spent a month on Orcus Island in the San Juan Islands off of Puget Sound, somewhat in the vicinity of where this story is set. The author's descriptions of the Olympic Peninsula are so visual and sensual I thought I was almost looking at snapshots of Orcus. I felt I could practically reach out and touch each fern and leaf in the forest anc could see the flight of sparrows over the tall ridges of Douglas firs. I found it uncanny how the simplicity and beauty of his writing could evoke such a detailed picture of the area. He is quite an artist and a naturalist with a deep love for the unspoiled lands of the Northwest. Although the ending seemed to spring upon me a bit too quickly, I did love the way it ended even though several people who have also read it have disagreed. They felt no one would walk away from the gold at the end like Baker. But perhaps that's the point of all this as well as the real lesson here. Baker isn't just anyone. He is a sensitive loner and does view the world very differently, mostly from his heart. Wounded people do, I think. He holds the world very seriously, almost sacredly, and possesses an enormous capacity to want to live on this earth with love and only love, not with a million dollars of stolen gold. Nothing else matters to him or even comes close. And ultimately, if you don't have a heart of gold, then you really have nothing. Baker's my guy. This book is really one that everyone should get their hands on and read. It's dazzling.

mastefful storytelling***high-flying metaphoricaljourney

Whenever I watch a supreme talent like Jordan or Tiger Woods, I'm always amazed how fluid and deceptively simple they make everything seem. The same can be said for Baker's Gold, a fast-paced and dazzling high-voltage romp through the Pacific Northwest, an absorbing and readable gem that cleverly disguises itself as a mystery. Fluid and deceptively simple on the surface, this novelis like a sly little drug someone has slipped into your drink--it plays with different layers of your mind well after you finished it. If this is the mark of a fine writer, then I believe we are being treated toone here, What itis we're being treated to is not just another mystery. If that's what you're looking for, you can get that from any hardboiled mystery writer who can follow a tight, linear formula. Baker's Gold is extraordinarily different. It's a masterful high-wire act that sticks itself out on a limb, dangles you there before dropping you in places you've never been. It's that good. The search for gold by Baker, a lost and wounded soul in retreat, is simply a brilliant metaphoric journey for the lost treasure hidden deep in his soul, the gold buried in all of us we are either afraid or do not know how to access. It's also about the ability not to be seduced by a mountain of foolsgold that preys upon our desires daily. There are mor lessons that come out of this book than you are even aware ofand like buckshot, they hit you dead on. Like Yossarian in Catch-22, we only get to know Baker as a character with one name. He's just Baker. I don't know why--maybe it's the simple sound of the name, Baker--but if it was Joe Baker or Tom Baker it wouldn't have been as effective. Maybe it's partly due to the fact that Baker is like a ship adrift; he is not too terribly sure who he is anymore or what he's doing in a world as perplexing as ours which makes his search for himself and the gold so endearing. And like Yossarian, Baker feels he is the only sane one left in a world gone berserk, even in a spot as remote as a corner on the Olympic Peninsula where there seem to be more nutcases running around than on an entire wing of Bellevue. He's not especially clever or brilliant. He's just another human being trying desperately to make sense of his life on earth and yet he knows exactly where he wants to be--on 20 acres of land hidden away in Washington. What I liked about Baker and the people whoinhabit his world is that they want nothing to do with mortgages and credit cards and interest rates. They moved to the Olympic Peninsula to live as independently as they can, going at it with a creed of volunteered simplicity which is so refreshing. They don't have 9 to 5 jobs and most don't have jobs at all. You get the impression that these are people who know all about septic tanks and solar energy, wells, pumps, and generators, and the last thing they know anything about is getting involved in

A breathtaking journey of intrigue though the Northwest.

Every once in awhile I come across a book so mersmerizing and beautifully written it not only sweeps my breath away but takes my feet out from under me as well. And when I collect myself, I find I am kneedeep in a world I do not want to ever leave, and in the hands of a talented writer with both fists on the throttle, foot pressed all the way on the gas pedal, howling into the night as he takes you on a journey you will never forget.Such is the case with this incredible novel, Baker's Gold, witten with one of the most engaging, delightful, and knockdown styles you're ever going to come across. Whoever RJ Cohn is and whatever corner of the earth he exploded out of, he is someone you want to hook your seat belt onto and hope to hell your buckle doesn't come loose along the way. He's that good. Aside from Tim Sandlin, I don't know of anyone else out there who can blow you away and grab you by the collar at the same time like RJ Cohn.. I got turned onto this book by a friend who said I had to read it immediately. I am not a big fan of mysteries, but Baker's Gold is beyond being a mystery.Mr. Cohn takes you on a ride of a lifetime through the Pacific Northwest the likes of which will leave y ou panting and delirious, uses metaphors so brilliantly you almost get the feeling he stayed up til 3 a.m. carving them out of marble while weaving a story of greed and obcession, choice and even love into your heart. The character of Baker is someone I can't shake from my mind even though it has been a month since I read the book. He is is incredibly different, so magnificently human instead of a clever Spenser or a Rambo type figure. He is more like a wounded spirit in search of flight but his runway is a little messed up at the moment.And to watch how he eventually takes charge of his life, of this mystery, and all the dilemmas that are gobbling him up is like watching a bullfighter conquering a raging bull with sheer grace. Cudos to Mr. Cohn. He also paints a portrait of the Pacific Northwest with such startling beauty and detail you almost begin to feel Baker is so spiritually connected to this part of the world that it is practically a part of him. It is truly an amazing feat, I think, to not only be able to pull this off, but to make the reader feel thoroughly entranced by the environment as well. You start to feel you are deep in the Olympic Peninsula, surrounded by ferns and moss and the scent of trees.There are some scenes that are so hilarious I laughed out loud, some scenes so racked with tension and obviously written with such pain you almost wonder about the depth of this author. I do not know what becomes of talented writers in our culture who write in virtual obscurity well behind the long line of bestselling hacks who grind out garbage for enormous sums of money. Perhaps they eventually stop writing out of frustration and just fade away.It is almost a sin.I do hope RJ Cohn not only continues to write

vivid, compelling, and deeply moving

R.J Cohn's brilliant first novel captures the reader and lures you in with creative metaphors and vivid descriptions. Taking place in the Olympic mountains, Cohn takes the reader through a wild roller-coaster of a ride over the search of a million dollars in gold. But it is more than just a search for gold. It is the search for a man's lost soul, a search for meaning in this chaotic world. The main character, Baker, is an old has been football player who wants nothing to do with the world except to be left alone. That is until the 17 year old girl, Felicity, enters his life and takes him and two other supporting characters, Rocco and Echo, on the search of a lifetime. Cohn's character work off one another as does Jerry Rice off of Joe Montana. R.J Cohn has found gold in his stunning first published novel, Baker's Gold. - Shane Tower Cougar Press