The Navigator The Navigator (1976) has much in common with other West novels: its international cast of characters, its focus on the impact of one man on society as a whole, its heavy dose of philosophy and theology running beneath the surface of the adventure story. However, the novel also has literary forebears in the pantheon of travel literature, both fictional and nonfictional. Like Robinson Crusoe, it examines the ways in which man can bring order to the wilds. Like Captain Cooks's Voyages and Thor Heyerdahl's true-life narratives of his adventures in the Pacific, it presents vivid accounts of life in that region. More significant, however, is the novel's ties to the tradition of Utopian literature, works which examine the problems of founding and maintaining the perfect society.

As he does in many of his novels, West uses the adventures of his characters in The Navigator to...