The Delivery Man packs a wallop, in that Bret Easton
Ellis “my characters live in an ethical vacuum and they love it” sort
of way, but author Joe McGinniss Jr. has a voice of his own. Yes, his
characters live in the epitome of a moral morass—Las
Vegas—but these twentysomething desert rats are searching for a
way out. Their efforts make for a fast-paced read, full of scares,
gross-outs, and waste.
Chase, a young artist, finds himself back in his Vegas hometown
after a short stint in New York. Teaching art at the local high school,
he’s trying to make good with his life, but a tragic past keeps him
uncomfortably close to his childhood friends. His former love, Michele,
has started a teenage prostitution ring out of her hotel suite, and
Chase’s friend Bailey is the pimp and the backer. Before you know it,
Chase’s moral ambiguity gets him fired and he’s driving 15-year-olds to
“out-calls,” while half-heartedly plotting his escape from Vegas.
The Delivery Man is balls-out scary. It’s full of cringing
summations about what it means to grow up without adults, without
consequences, and without much hope of anything changing. The
atmospherics build: A heat wave causes starving coyotes to rampage the
surrounding suburbs. Fifteen-year-olds get bigger and bigger breast
implants. Asphalt softens as the summer goes on. It’s a world where
everyone’s too young and too high, and no one expects to live ’til
30.
“It occurs to [Chase] that either one of these girls could be dead
tomorrow. They could simply go to yet another party and trust the wrong
person and take the wrong drug and pass out in an empty bedroom and
never wake up.” Chase’s ambivalence makes him a complex, not totally
likeable character—by doing nothing, he becomes what he
observes.
The Delivery Man is extremely readable—fast, smooth,
and increasingly tragic. But for all its flash, the novel’s characters
are fragile, and you’re never quite sure about their motivations.
Michele remains an interesting mystery, as does Chase. Armed with
plenty of resources, these two lost losers can never quite seem to
leave Vegas. Which, I’m sure, is the point.
it is a bit scary. This group of characters reminds me a lot of myself and other people I know… not with their occupation, but how they feel, the confusion that my generation is left with. Chase’s flashbacks about Carly are phenomenal, and effectively demonstrates its point, leaving the audience room to contemplate. amazingg!!!