The Monkey with the Golden Arm: The Tales and Adventures of Jonathan B. Owen — Rick Thomas

Jonathan B. Owen, criminal and madman, lives his life between two worlds -- a dubious reality and a scary fantasy. No in-between like you and I. He's in a place many would like to be -- alone, far from mediocrity and our own crowd. If not running from the law, he is wandering the world -- slipping around a corner, dancing up a street or falling over a hill.

In tropical countries he encounters souls, cultures and gods; countries open their villages, cities and temples to shake and rattle him. He stands his ground keeping them at arms length, holding off temptation, protecting himself from harm, at times he takes flight for his life. He is brave when the fight is needed especially twelve feet up on the neck of his Thai elephant or in pursuit across Cuba of a Garifuna woman. Lost in the beauty of a young criminal woman, the psychotic frenzy of a lover or the embrace of a refugee family he copes the best he can.

He travels not knowing where he will land next but that is where the excitement begins; in the foreign dust that covers his sandaled feet and in the searing sun that bakes him into one with the earth. There is no journey, no grand design and no cheap excuse, just a manic curiosity -- a walk over ghosts and bones. No worry of the danger he courts -- in the end there is redemption and the knowledge he lived. Look deep -- he is as naughty as you.