''Adventures of Wim'' is a book by George Cockcroft, written under the pen name

Luke Rhinehart George Powers Cockcroft (November 15, 1932 – November 6, 2020), widely known by the pen name Luke Rhinehart, was an American novelist, screenwriter, and nonfiction writer. He is best known for his 1971 novel '' The Dice Man,'' the story of a psy ...

. It was first published in 1986.

Plot summary

The book is composed of sections taken from other, fictional books. The preface to the book claims that it was written in Deya, Majorca, in 2326. According to the book, an entire industry has grown up publishing books about a Montauk named Wim - including ''The Gospel According to Luke'' (Luke Forth, not Luke Rhinehart) and the screenplay of a movie. The screenplay is possibly in there as a result of Luke Rhinehart's continuing frustration in trying to get ''The Dice Man'' turned into a good movie. Adventures of Wim, then, is an effort to create a new interpretation of the story of Wim, drawing on the many previous efforts, and so providing a multi-faceted and whimsical account of 'one of the greatest figures in the 20th and 21st Century'. A boy is born of a virgin mother and is named "Wim" (in ''Adventures of Wim'') or "Whim" (in ''The Book of the Die'' and ''Whim''): Montauk for "Wave Rider". He is pronounced to be the saviour of the Montauk nation by his tribe's navigator, and educated in their ways including the "Montauk martial arts" which are predicated on not engaging with, nor even being noticed by an enemy. Sadly, the humans steal him away and attempt to educate him in more useful skills, such as

American Football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

. Wim, also known as "He of Many Chances", proves to be an inefficient saviour, as God sends him on a quest for Ultimate Truth. This does not seem to be something that will benefit his tribe terribly, but the navigator isn't one to stare down the barrel of a

lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...

gun, and sends him on his way. After a long and arduous search, Wim finds ultimate truth (in a potato), and with it the cure for the sickness of the

human condition The human condition is all of the characteristics and key events of human life, including birth, learning, emotion, aspiration, morality, conflict, and death. This is a very broad topic that has been and continues to be pondered and analyzed fr ...

Release details

*1986, UK, Grafton Books , Pub date 22 May 1986, hardcover (as ''Adventures of Wim'') *1987, UK, Grafton Books , Pub date 19 November 1987, paperback (as ''Adventures of Wim'') *2002, USA, AuthorHouse , Pub date 2002, hardcover (as ''Whim'') *2002, USA, AuthorHouse , Pub date 2002, paperback (as ''Whim'')

References

{{portal, Novels 1986 American novels American comedy novels American philosophical novels Grafton (publisher) books