ŷ������

Something about this book scared the shit out of me when I first read it. I was a shy teenager and I sympathized with the predicament of the Dawes character. In the older American Westerns, the brave horse riding hero puts his neck on the line, standing up against authority, protecting his land or guarding the weak. In the more atomized second half of the 20th century, the enemy does not really have a face and self destruction might ultimately be a brave act. This might sound funny, but the laundry where Dawes works and neighborhood might be similar to the land of a frontier man in the old West. Dawes loses it when the highway project threatens the existence of both. Roadwork is sort of a really dark second half of the 20th century Western. It is easy and lazy to see Dawes as a pathetic man who is a victim of American capitalism. There is nothing an ordinary man can really do to guard himself against change. Wasn't Dawes not channeling some of the individuality of his ancestors when he did what he did?

The flashback in the novel where Dawes and his wife Mary collect cans (or was it bottles?) to make money to buy a TV was romantic and heartbreaking when you consider what happens to their relationship and the novels ending. King is a master of the sub plot, the tall tale and memorable flashback. Remember the pie eating story in Stand by Me? The young couple starting their life together, collecting cans to buy a TV, making it against all odds and then it all falls apart. American Beauty and Falling Down have nothing on what King did here.

Anyway, Roadwork is one dark novel. Some Harry Crews level stuff here. I wonder whether King is a fan of Crews. It is terrible what the Dawes character does with his life. Or what happens to him and Mary. How can an ordinary man in the greatest country in the world, at the zenith of its powers, let himself go like this? Maybe it sucks to be just ordinary in the greatest nation of the world. Dawes might have lived a happy life in India or something. Who knows? I could be wrong.