Taking of the Waters — John Shannon

Clay Trumbull is the heir to a legacy of leftist social activism. Both his grandmother, Maxi Trumbull, who was a leading muckraking journalist in the early part of the 20th century, and his labor organizer father, Eugene Debs "Slim" Trumbull, had pursued the ideal of social justice with a single-minded zeal which usually precluded any semblance of a stable life. The toll exacted by their sacrifice is embodied in Clay, who like his father, Slim, was born out of wedlock, received little classroom education and was shuttled around protest sites for most of his childhood. As an adult, Clay dove into investigative journalism with wild abandon and a disregard for personal well-being, and it is this recklessness which prompts close friend German socialist writer Dieter Sachs to come to America and try to save Clay from both himself and his commitment to the cause. Clay's annoying single-mindedness and dour outlook curiously manage to win Dieter over, and soon the two are tearing up the American southwest in a big blue Cadillac, seeking out injustice, as well as girls, liquor and adventure.