A Salty Piece of Land
Encyclopedia
A Salty Piece of Land is a 2004 novel
by bestselling author
and songwriter
Jimmy Buffett
. It is about a fictional
American
westerner, Tully Mars, who goes to work repairing an island lighthouse
. Buffett first introduced the character Tully Mars in his earlier work, Tales from Margaritaville
. The book includes a CD single with a song of the same title as the book.
.
, a date which he failed to keep.
He sails with Captain Kirk, the captain of a shrimp boat, to a mythical place known as Punta Margarita, where he becomes a fishing guide at a local resort, The Lost Boys, named after characters in Peter Pan
. He begins to settle into a life of leisure, fishing and drinking with his Mayan friend Ix-Nay, but his world is soon turned upside down when Donna Kay shows up on a pink seaplane
and tells him that she's getting married to Clark Gable, a horse trainer featured in the previous story.
He leaves Lost Boys to take a few days off after this experience, and falls asleep on the beach, where he is robbed in his sleep. When he wakes, a 140-foot schooner
, the Lucretia, is anchored nearby. When the captain, feisty 101-year old Cleopatra Highbourne, comes ashore, they strike up a friendship immediately and Tully is offered a job as part of the crew.
Initially, he turns down this offer, but after run-ins with two bounty hunters from Wyoming, where he has outstanding warrants, he finds himself on her ship just the same. It is at that point that she takes him to Cayo Loco, the salty piece of land referred to in the book's title, which is a small mythical island that is home to an old-fashioned lighthouse
. Cleopatra puts Tully to work fixing up the ruin, as she intends the island to be her final resting place.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by bestselling author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett
James William "Jimmy" Buffett is a singer-songwriter, author, entrepreneur, and film producer. He is best known for his music, which often portrays an "island escapism" lifestyle. Together with his Coral Reefer Band, Buffett's musical hits include "Margaritaville" , and "Come Monday"...
. It is about a fictional
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
westerner, Tully Mars, who goes to work repairing an island lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
. Buffett first introduced the character Tully Mars in his earlier work, Tales from Margaritaville
Tales from Margaritaville
Tales from Margaritaville is a collection of short stories by singer Jimmy Buffett, published in 1989, 230 pages long.The book is broken up into an introduction and three sections, each containing several short stories....
. The book includes a CD single with a song of the same title as the book.
Synopsis
Tully Mars, a 40-something guide at the Lost Boys Fishing Lodge resort, takes trips around the CaribbeanCaribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
.
Plot details
This book picks up where the story Take Another Road from the novel Tales from Margaritaville left off. Tully Mars breaks up with his girlfriend, Donna Kay, a waitress from the Chat 'N' Chew restaurant in Heat Wave, Alabama. In the previous story, he sent her a winning lottery ticket and asked her to meet him in Belize CityBelize City
Belize City is the largest city in the Central American nation of Belize. Unofficial estimates place the population of Belize City at 70,000 or more. It is located at the mouth of the Belize River on the coast of the Caribbean. The city is the country's principal port and its financial and...
, a date which he failed to keep.
He sails with Captain Kirk, the captain of a shrimp boat, to a mythical place known as Punta Margarita, where he becomes a fishing guide at a local resort, The Lost Boys, named after characters in Peter Pan
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...
. He begins to settle into a life of leisure, fishing and drinking with his Mayan friend Ix-Nay, but his world is soon turned upside down when Donna Kay shows up on a pink seaplane
Seaplane
A seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. Seaplanes that can also take off and land on airfields are a subclass called amphibian aircraft...
and tells him that she's getting married to Clark Gable, a horse trainer featured in the previous story.
He leaves Lost Boys to take a few days off after this experience, and falls asleep on the beach, where he is robbed in his sleep. When he wakes, a 140-foot schooner
Schooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
, the Lucretia, is anchored nearby. When the captain, feisty 101-year old Cleopatra Highbourne, comes ashore, they strike up a friendship immediately and Tully is offered a job as part of the crew.
Initially, he turns down this offer, but after run-ins with two bounty hunters from Wyoming, where he has outstanding warrants, he finds himself on her ship just the same. It is at that point that she takes him to Cayo Loco, the salty piece of land referred to in the book's title, which is a small mythical island that is home to an old-fashioned lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
. Cleopatra puts Tully to work fixing up the ruin, as she intends the island to be her final resting place.