More great lines from Downtown Owl

There's a certain enjoyable meandering quality to this book that reminds me of Cannery Row. It's not that book of course. Not even Steinbeck could re-write Cannery Row. (see: Sweet Thursday.) But the anecdotal decoupage is reminiscent and gives me the same feeling like I could read it forever although a small town in North Dakota is obviously not quite on the same level of fantasy destination.

Several interesting stories, like the one about Horace getting fleeced by a con man he met at his wife's funeral. He was fleeced 4 months after the funeral for all of his wife's insurance money on some crazy betting scheme that was predicated on NFL games being fixed.

Or the conversations between Julia and Vance Druid. I loved the one about his musical tastes (Bruce Springsteen "seems like an asshole." Cheap Trick "dressed like circus freaks." ELO are "like a combination of the dullest parts of the Beatles and the gayest parts of Led Zeppelin.") He only likes the Rolling Stones. And one song by Steely Dan ("Deacon Blues" excellent choice) but they seem boring.

That was a good chapter but here's an excerpt of one where Julia, Ted and Naomi are cruising through town. There's lots of drunk driving in this book. Ted tells a story about a girl he hung out with in college that kissed one of his friends at a party and killed their three-way friendship (the story is more complicated but that's the skeletal version.) Julia has done a face plant in the back seat and Ted and Naomi keep talking:

"Do you ever wish that Sarah Greenberg would have kissed you instead of Tiger Lyons?"

"Never. I used to, but I haven't for years."

They drove another hundred yards in silence.

"Ted?"

"Yes."

"Sometimes I would like to kiss you."

They drove another hundred feet.

"Naomi."

"Yes?"

"You need to pay closer attention to the stories people tell you about themselves."

They were almost back in Owl. Nothing was different.

Horace's wife Alma died in the early 70's. She developed a rare disorder (fatal familial insomnia which is apparently a real thing) and was unable to sleep. Like ever again. And she began to hallucinate after about 30 days. Here is Horace talking with Alma:

Alma paused. She looked at Horace's chest and squinted her eyes.

"Why is this happening?" she asked.

"I don't know," he said, unconsciously inferring that this had been an existential query about why his wife had contracted a hyper-rare sleep disorder that wasn't even supposed to exist. In truth, Alma was asking why both of their bodies were suddenly becoming translucent. But under these specific circumstances, that is probably the same question.

Mitch spends the first half of the book being tormented by his teacher and coach, Mr. Laidlaw. I like this exchange between Julie and Laidlaw that efficiently lays out the gap between what teachers think of students versus what students think teachers think of them:

Mitch Hrlicks walked by with Nineteen Eighty-Four in his left hand, trying to ignore both of the authority figures who were watching him. His hair was out of control. There were bags under both his eyes.

"Merry Christmas, Vanna," said Laidlaw. "Are you going to be an elf this year?"

"Probably not," said Mitch. "No." 

"You would make a fine elf, Vanna," said Laidlaw. "You could be Sleepy."

"Sleepy was a dwarf," said Mitch.

"So what? Don't you think elves have names?"

Mitch slouched toward Bethlehem.

"I don't understand that kid," said Julia. "He seems nice enough, but he always looks depressed."

"Mitch is a good kid," said Laidlaw. "He's a really good kid, relatively speaking. But he has no sense of humor. That's his problem."

Of course, perhaps it better illustrates how some old people fail to realize they are coming across as assholes to everyone under 20.