Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Randy DeVita's "Riding the Doghouse"

FictionAnemic coughs her way through a review of Randy DeVita's "Riding the Doghouse" that should have happened a month ago. Careful, I'm still contagious.

Originally, the first blurb that this review was going to have was, "Finally, a story by someone under the age of 40." Of course, four weeks ago, I had a lot of different plans than I have now after trying to get over a really relentless strain of the flu and then catch up with everything else in my life.

But yes, finally a story by someone new, a fresh young voice. Gone are some of the WASP-y end of life themes we've seen - illness, retirement, accumulated wealth, etc. Instead, our ominous story focuses on a pre-teen boy taking a trip with his truck driver father.

While reading this story, I thought of a book I recently read on adolescent boys called "Loners, Losers, and Rebels." The thesis of the book is how boys have to go through three stages of seeing themselves as a Loner, a Loser, and a Rebel. Like much of adolescence, each stage is painful, but boys can't skip any of these stages without having major problems later on down the road.

Throughout this story, the main character is going through two of these stages. He questions his father why he doesn't have an office job like his friend (rebel). At certain points, he sets himself apart from his father (loner).

The Loser stage takes place at a truck stop late one night. The boy's father establishes that his son should touch none of the controls. When the father steps out of the cab, the boy does exactly that (another rebel act) - using the CB to get in touch with the mysterious Midnight, supposedly another truck driver. Only when it's too late does the boy realize he's made a mistake.

If there is one end of life theme going on here, it's mortality. Midnight is also at the truck stop. In an ode to Rear Window, the boy looks over to another truck and sees the tip of a cigarette goal orange and then disappear. Midnight threatens the boy, saying he might come after his father.

My question is, is Midnight a real trucker - some psychopath, or is Midnight death in physical form? Either way, the boy has paid the price to be a man - he's aware of his father's (and ultimately his own) mortality.

The story is bookended by the narrator (the boy) as a grown man overlooking his own pre-teen son asleep during a thunderstorm. One wonders what his son will do as he goes through his own three stages.

While I liked the story a lot and the respite from old people stories, one thing I wondered - is this truly one of the best american short stories? Sure, it's extremely well crafted, but I can't help but wonder if this has something to do with Stephen King being the editor? But, there I go again, being the lit snob. What do you think SynecdoChick?

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