Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle

Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle

Sean creates and administers paper based mail order games in a digital world, but his small income and solitary environment are well suited to him.  Years ago Sean suffered a disfiguring accident that makes interaction with the outside world uncomfortable, but the ordered pathways of running his games and the small conversations he has through the mail are all he needs now.  Until two game players take his directions to find the Italian Trace literally and journey into the borderlands of Kansas and Nebraska and face death and disfigurement at the hands of the elements.  Now Sean is on trial and forced to leave his protective environment.

I’ll admit it.  I must have missed something.  I enjoyed the book, nominated for a National Book Award, but I can’t say I got it.  I know how Sean’s accident occurred, but not why, and I think that was the central concept and point of the book.  Maybe I was reading too much on the surface, I’ll admit I read mostly for plot, but when the time of the accident was being explained I did read more closely and still must have missed something somewhere.  Or the not knowing was exactly the point.  For those that enjoy literary fiction and not having most of their questions directly answered.