Bart Dawes plots his revenge after his home is threatened by the construction of a new highway.
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Commentary
Like movies, some books just get old. Although Roadwork is about the pitying fate of an ordinary man whose life takes a sharp turn, in fact it is all about what life looked like in 1973 in the United States - in the hard times of oil crisis, during Nixon's presidency, in the aftermath of Vietnam war and the 'revolution' of the sixties. The book is full of allegories and direct references. The view taken is a bitter one. In some sense, 'Roadwork' may be counted among the books strongly set in the blue-collar environment of an everyday American, with his everyday life. Perhaps those who remember the times, those who were part of it, will appreciate it more. I can't, though. I was born exactly in 1973 and none of the references made in the book are clear to me. Irrespective of the time their fiction is set in, some novels carry eternal truths, or lies, for that matter. Then they speak to their readers long after they were written. This is not the case here. The only thing that saves the novel is its main topic, a life of a desperate man, whose sanity is disturbed by a sequence of events. Miscarriage. Then a sad death of his young son - born with a brain-tumor, the ticking bomb, set to explode too early.
Then there comes the roadwork. At the very last page of the novel we get to know that the morbid construction was purposeless. Some money had just to be spent by local authorities, otherwise the federal credit stream would have stopped. So the road was built, damaging the lives and dreams of people living in its way. Some recovered well, some with less luck. The only one who did not recover is Bart Dawes. The unavoidable destruction of his home was the proverbial straw on camel's back. Something snapped and the circulation of events started. The striking feature of the story is that Bart is conscious of his doings all the time. He gives up his life, but does not think about it too much. With the feeling of grim senselessness and helplessness he is through with his marriage, his job, his home - he has nothing to lose. Nothing to gain - and that's the thing that forces him to refuse to go on, to make any improvements. And so he dies on TV.
Listen to Stephen King now. The main character did not kill anyone except his own self. At the very last hour of his life, he tries to send a desperate message to people all over the country. Now watch this, watch me, I'll be dead in the nick of time, but please, I beg you - do something about it, vote, rally, I don't really care, but do not let them destroy the lives of good citizens. THEM. Yes, the story makes a show on national TV channel, but soon it is forgotten like many other events. People get used to watching real horrors on TV. Someone got killed, there is war in Pernambuco. The shaky cease-fire still holds. And life goes on. The show must go on. Roadwork is a sad book by all means. But the saddest thing of all is that the sacrifices like Dawes's are for nothing. Very sad, indeed. So, summarizing what I already said, the environment of the story aged quite much, but nevertheless the main idea persisted. Has anything changed since 1973? I don't think so. Do you? Think about it while watching news on TV tonight. -- The Ultimate Moose,
