For many U.S. draftees in the Vietnam War era, the question of whether to serve one's country or relocate to Canada was difficult to confront; it also forced them to address buried complexities in the lives they would leave behind. Such is the case with Lee Clarke, the protagonist of the wittily titled Dodge City, Patrick deWitt's fast-paced, dialogue-heavy story about a young slacker unsure of everything except for one important fact: he has no intention of serving in the war.
Lee is studying at UCLA, and all goes well enough until he gets into a fight at a campus party and drops his opponent with one punch to the teeth. Unluckily for Lee, that opponent's parents are "esteemed benefactors," so the college expels Lee, and he loses his draft deferment. Worse luck comes when he receives his draft notice. Lee decides to escape to Canada instead. With only his suitcase and an ample supply of "driving pills"--Benzedrine--from his pal Robin, Lee sets out. He follows a circuitous path to visit people from his past, including his father, living alone in Washington State and eking out a living as a dogcatcher; his mother, who ditched the family and moved to Montana when Lee was in high school; and his sister, Grace, a Manhattan nurse-in-training in an affair with a married doctor.
DeWitt (French Exit) expounds on themes of self-preservation and escape as each character addresses consequential decisions and their repercussions. "We're defined by our behaviors, by the choices we make," a character tells Lee, a lesson he learns with painful clarity in this deceptively light work. --Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer