Another slice-of-life/more
memoir-than-fiction book, this one holds together better than others
I have read of late. The week-long tale covers a post-high school
road trip by artist guy Colby and three girls who make up the
neo-Riot Grrl band, “The Disenchantments.” The title of the
band, and book, is extremely apropos, given that this is a week where
the young people must let go of their made-up dreams and embrace the
uncertainty of the real world. This isn’t so much a romance book
as an anti-romance book – Colby’s plans with his best friend,
Bev, are shattered quickly, leaving all four occupants of a
tripped-out, ancient VW bus to contemplate their fates as they travel
to low-rent bars in small towns during a farewell tour. The charm of
the book is the road trip. Quintessential in our collective dreaming
about life, road trips are the ultimate “go-do” for almost
everyone I have ever met. Real charm is found in the quirky and
delightful people they meet, the conversations and reflections they
have along the way, and their efforts to make an impact on the places
they visit even as the trip changes them on a
visceral
level. The experiences here struck me as universal, and they are a
huge part of why the book left me with such a strong impression. I
didn’t love it – more happens internally with Colby than
externally with the story, but the characters are strong and their
“longing” drew me in. Thinking about my own personal need
to just get out of Dodge and have some adventures made this a
perfect pick for this moment in my life. While well-written, and
with tremendous detail chronicling, well, everything, there were a
couple of things that nagged. First – the book is a little
exhausting to read. With no chapter breaks (the only breaks you get
are between days, but even that pretense is dropped mid-week) this
felt like stream of consciousness. There were no natural stopping
points to step away and consider what you have taken in so far. The
result was a pressing need to read straight through – and it is not
a short book. I have the luxury right now of doing that, so I was
able to finish it in a couple of days, but my “normal” life
involves very short spurts to read. I would have liked the
opportunity to tuck in the bookmark and not feel like I was leaving
in the middle of things. Since the entire book is essentially about
one question, I knew I wouldn’t get the answers I wanted until the
end, so eventually I just crashed and did a marathon read. There
were also two, somewhat glaring, inconsistencies (in a book that
cataloged every minute of every day). One is a forgotten amp, which
leads our intrepid protagonist to make a major alteration to his
plan. The amp is retrieved, but then he careens off in another
direction and it is never quite clear how the thing ends up at the
next location. Did they haul it across a horse farm? Leave it on
the bus for someone else to retrieve in Portland? We never find out. Also, less glaring, but curious, an important tattoo image
appears several times but is treated differently in each instance.
The first time, a cell-phone picture is taken and sent to Colby’s
dad. The second time, the tattoo is more important, as it has a huge
influence on Colby, but he doesn’t record the image. More odd,
than anything. In any case, this is a book of dreams. If you dream
about shaking your life up, taking some risks, and maybe discovering
a new road to travel, it’s the perfect pick. As the writer herself
says, “There is something about distance, being removed from what’s
familiar, that lets things happen.”
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