Traveling Sprinkler was published by Blue Rider Press in 2013. Paul Chowder — the procrastinating poet-anthologist of Baker’s 2009 novel — is back. He has stopped writing poetry entirely. Now he wants to write protest songs. Specifically, he wants to write songs protesting the Obama administration’s drone warfare program and its “kill list” of targeted assassinations.
Chowder buys a bass guitar, teaches himself GarageBand, and fumbles toward songwriting while maintaining his characteristic monologue about everything else: his love life (still a mess), his dog, his reading (Debussy, protest music history, the ethics of targeted killing), and the question of whether art can do anything useful about political evil. The novel is gentler and funnier than Checkpoint — Chowder’s attempts at protest are endearing rather than frightening — but the political anger underneath is real.
Baker uses the sequel form to track how political disillusionment evolves: in 2004 (Checkpoint), rage against Bush produced fantasies of violence; in 2013, disappointment with Obama produces something sadder — the realization that the surveillance state and the killing machine operate regardless of which party holds power, and that individual protest (whether poem or song) may be futile.
Collecting Traveling Sprinkler
First edition (Blue Rider Press, New York, 2013): Hardcover with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $15–$30
- Very good/very good: $8–$15
Projected values (2026–2036): Modest appreciation.
Chowder Returns
Traveling Sprinkler (2013) is the sequel to The Anthologist, returning to Paul Chowder, who has now taken up songwriting and electronic music. The novel follows Chowder through a summer in New Hampshire as he composes protest songs, worries about drones and surveillance, and tries to win back his ex-girlfriend. Baker’s characteristic digressions — on bassoons, Debussy, mosquito control, and the pleasures of mowing — give the novel its texture. It is lighter than The Anthologist but shares its warmth and intelligence.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this a political novel? Partially — Chowder’s outrage about drones and the surveillance state gives the novel a political edge that The Anthologist lacked. But it remains primarily a character study of a lovable, scattered, deeply intelligent man.