Routes

The fact that he's dead doesn't deter Arthur King--according to his sister, anyway--from dictating their family history to her in this witty and brash first novel. The tale he relates via Morning Black, a writer, mostly concerns their maternal grandparents: Corn Dog, a part-black, part-white, part-Indian warrior; and Sarah Blanche, the bonny daughter of a Shibbolite (read: Mormon) preacher. Their union is, of course, unsanctioned, and after Corn Dog narrowly escapes a lynch mob it takes years for the couple to find each other again in the City by the Bay. Readers will probably enjoy Okas's lighthearted, entertaining parody of Manifest Destiny and Alex Haley's Roots once they get used to the author's punning ways--the British Army is ``the Brutish Army,'' Las Vegas becomes ``Los Pecados'' and Indians are ``Indigens.'' An afterword informs us that Okas intends to continue the family's saga, but he might want to think about reining in his style--as goofy and pleasant as his spacey characters--in future volumes. Witty and imaginative though it is, the arch tone gets a little tiresome over the long haul. (Apr.)