''Where is Joe Merchant?'' is a novel by singer Jimmy Buffett, published in 1992. The book, a ''New York Times'' Best Seller, revolves around Frank Bama and his ex-girlfriend,

hemorrhoid Hemorrhoids (or haemorrhoids), also known as piles, are vascular structures in the anal canal. In their normal state, they are cushions that help with stool control. They become a disease when swollen or inflamed; the unqualified term ''he ...

-ointment heiress Trevor Kane. Frank, a down-on-his-luck

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their technological characteri ...

pilot, is about to escape to

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

when Trevor unexpectedly jumps back into his life asking for his help in tracking down her brother, the notorious rock star Joe Merchant. Other characters joining Frank and Trevor in their search include sleazy tabloid reporter Rudy Breno,

rocket scientist Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...

Desdemona, many mercenaries, and the

jet ski Jet Ski is the brand name of a personal watercraft (PWC) manufactured by Kawasaki, a Japanese company. The term is often used generically to refer to any type of personal watercraft used mainly for recreation, and it is also used as a verb to ...

Killer. The cover art was illustrated by Michael Koelsch. The Arecibo Observatory is featured in the book and the lyrics to the song "Desdemona's Building A Rocket Ship". In both, a talented baker and former backup singer named Desdemona has a tryst with one of the workers "under the giant telescope", and begins receiving telepathic messages from the

Pleiades The Pleiades (), also known as The Seven Sisters, Messier 45 and other names by different cultures, is an asterism and an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Taurus. At a distance ...

, telling her to build a spaceship and "come home".

Characters

Desdemona

Desdemona, a major character in the novel but not its protagonist, is a psychic based on a small island off the coast of Hispaniola. She finds her mission to be the building of a rocket ship to travel to the

. Lacking both science knowledge and working capital, she bases her rocket ship on the long abandoned rusting hulk of an airplane fuselage that had once belonged to

Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in th ...

. While theoretically under construction, her ship the ''Cosmic Muffin'' also serves as her houseboat and hosts her bakery business. Desdemona's psychic abilities involve nearly random reception of messages (usually phrased as riddles, much to her consternation) concerning both life itself and the eponymous search for Joe Merchant. She and Joe Merchant first cross paths in the 1960s in San Francisco. As their paths developed, she became a backup singer in Merchant's band, and was once married to an associate of Merchant's. Following the breakup of both her band and her marriage, and the descent of Merchant into the drug world (Desdemona herself was famed for her pot-brownies while in San Francisco), she worked her way south through the midwestern states, then to Mexico, where her interest in Astronomy and psychic ability was cultivated. Ultimately, she arrived in the small Caribbean island of Little Lorraine. This characterization of Desdemona also appears in several of Buffett's songs, including "Fruitcakes" and "Desdemona's Building a Rocket Ship" from his album ''

Banana Wind ''Banana Wind'' is the twentieth studio album by American popular music singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett. It was released on MCA and Margaritaville Records on June 4, 1996, debuting at number four on the ''Billboard'' 200. Songs "Jamaica Mistai ...

''.

References

1992 American novels Books by Jimmy Buffett {{1990s-novel-stub