#333 Taped to the Sky- Luis Alberto Urrea

#333 Taped to the Sky- Luis Alberto Urrea

Hubbard is in a bad way. His wife, the woman he bought a car and an education for, the woman he just helped get through an AA program, left with her sponsor. He decided to take the car back and drive his troubles away.

South to Louisiana, West to Texas, North to Colorado, etc…“This whole chunk of the map was written in poems and liquor bottle labels.”

His grief subsided with each state, each dumb roadside attraction, each violence run-in with the local drunks. As the sky got bigger, his head got clearer:

“There were patterns moving across the sky, high, where small scallops of cloud shimmered like mother-of-pearl. He felt a part of the great becoming, the revelation of the West.”

Sometimes when you feel abandoned, maybe you’ve really been set free. Sometimes, you still need to be taught a lesson.

Rating: 8-7-8-8 Total= 31

#321 Tough, Tough Toys, for Tough, Tough Boys- Will Self

#321 Tough, Tough Toys, for Tough, Tough Boys- Will Self

Thoughts while driving a fast car, I guess this is supposed to be a road story (until its not). It gives a nod to Kerouac, mentioning both him and "some dharma," but this reads like the author never read Kerouac. It reads like the author thinks this is what other road stories are about.

This story lost me quickly, then slogged on for another thirty pages, containing nothing that aided to the story. Between the random thoughts dropping from the driver’s head, the story suffered from Self’s relentless attempts at cleverness, most of which fell flat.

Good sentences ruined by forced word play or shoe-horned-in metaphors. Take a look at these few clips:

“…there was the sense that as the car plunged south—switch backing over spurs, and charging down hillsides—it was taking Bill out of the unimagined world and into the world that was all too clearly conceived of, fixed in its nature, hammered into banality by mass comprehension.”

“The wands of memories interleaved themselves with the sprigs of scenery, and then the whole hedge of impressions was further shaped and molded by the music which poured from all four corners, before being flattened by the mantra of impulsion.”

I really like rich language, but this is tiresome and feels forced. Self’s writing style is not a voice that hits my ear naturally, but his story telling usually makes the read worth while. This one is a miss for me.

Rating: 6-5-3-5 Total= 19

#195 Jesus is Waiting- Amy Hempel

#195 Jesus is Waiting- Amy Hempel

A life of driving is a lonely thing. The narrator calls the act of driving a mediation or a drone. The same could be said about this story. The running thoughts get funny, and a little loopy but not too deep, and rarely meaningful, at least not to the reader. Just random brain dropping like:

“It is the day before Thanksgiving. According to the radio, people travel to their destination by car. One hundred percent if you count just me.”

“A good feeling when I see traffic cones. They weigh next to nothing and cannot hurt a car. That’s not why I mow them down.”

We don’t learn much about the driver, or the purpose of the driving. We are just riding along, watching through the passenger side window. The Title references an Al Green song.

Notable Passage: “The drive is determinedly a drive. Mostly it is just about the sounds of the car, or driving, of the fade-in and fade-out of the radio, the removal from everything but the moving body in a vehicle, of the is-ness of passing from here to there, of not being where you were, of Jesus waiting. Call it a meditation. Call it a drone. How else to approach Jesus that without history, without reason, without restraint?”

Rating 8-7-7-7 Total=29