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Pilgrim's Harbor

Story Line Press, Paper, 1992, 200 pp

Pilgrim's Harbor is Floyd Skloot's first novel.

From the Publisher:

The story concerns a roadside motel manger - an expert in transient relationships - who meets a woman at the mall on his day off and has no idea how you go about establishing an intimate relationship--or even a relationship that lasts longer than fifteen minutes. Filled with oddball townspeople and overnight patrons, the novel explores the risks inherent in opening your heart and soul to others.

Quotes from reviews of the book:

"Skloot's first novel is by turns funny and touching.  We get to see another side of those highway motels and take a peek at the strange history of the rooms before we got there." —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Says something very important about America. . . . Skloot writes well, and his portrait of America's road people is sharp, funny and oddly disturbing." —Kansas City Star

"What could have been , in the hands of a less polished writer, a cliched story about `a man who couldn't commit' is a contemporary U.S. live white male Pilgrim's progress, enlivened by its poetic language and its carnival of oddball humanity." —Harvard Review

"An understated first novel [whose main character] confirms his long‑dormant humanity." —Los Angeles Times

"Pilgrim's Harbor is one of those novels that delivers more than it promises.  The setting and Skloot's skill turn a small novel into a delight." —Prairie Schooner

"Some of their stories stay with reader after the lights are out at Pilgrim's Harbor." —Idaho Statesman

"This book is funny, poignant, and wise. Check it out." —Craig Lesley