Alnilam was published by Doubleday in 1987, seventeen years after Deliverance, and it is Dickey’s most ambitious and most demanding work of fiction — a 682-page novel that uses innovative typography (split columns on many pages, representing the protagonist’s double consciousness of blindness and imagination) to tell the story of a recently blinded man’s search for his missing son.
Frank Cahill, an Atlanta amusement-park owner, has just lost his sight to diabetes. He learns that his son Joel — a boy he never knew, having abandoned his mother before the child was born — has disappeared from an Army Air Force training base in North Carolina. Frank travels to the base with his seeing-eye dog and begins to investigate, discovering that Joel had become the charismatic leader of a secret group among the cadets called “Alnilam” (the middle star of Orion’s belt) — a visionary, Nietzschean brotherhood dedicated to the idea that flight can transcend human limitations.
The novel’s experimental technique — the left column representing what Frank actually perceives (sounds, textures, smells, the movement of air) and the right column representing the visual world he cannot see — creates a reading experience of unusual difficulty and occasional brilliance. The book was received with respect but not enthusiasm: critics acknowledged its ambition while noting that its length and difficulty made it inaccessible to most readers.
Collecting Alnilam
First edition (Doubleday, New York, 1987): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $15–$40
- Without jacket: $5–$10
- Signed copies: $30–$80