THE PARADE by Dave Eggers (Knopf, March 2019) Hardcover, 192 pages. ISBN #0735277524 / 9780735277526
Summary from the Goodreads website . . . . .
From a beloved author, a spare, powerful story of two men, Western contractors sent to work far from home, tasked with paving a road to the capital in a dangerous and largely lawless country.
Four and Nine are partners, working for the same company, sent without passports to a nation recovering from ten years of civil war. Together, operating under pseudonyms and anonymous to potential kidnappers, they are given a new machine, the RS-80, and tasked with building a highway that connects the country's far-flung villages with the capital.
Four, nicknamed "The Clock," is one of the highway's most experienced operators, never falling short of his assigned schedule. He drives the RS-80, stopping only to sleep and eat the food provided by the company.
But Nine is an agent of chaos: speeding ahead on his vehicle, chatting and joking with locals, eating at nearby bars and roadside food stands, he threatens the schedule, breaks protocol, and endangers the work that they must complete in time for a planned government parade.
His every action draws Four's ire, but when illness, corruption, and theft compromise their high-stakes mission, Four and Nine discover danger far greater than anything they could pose to one another.
My review on the Goodreads website . . . . .
On the surface, this is an interesting short novel and quick read about a highway construction project in a third-world country completed by just two workers using high-tech machinery. Curiously, they are only identified by numbers - - Four and Nine - - and their names are never revealed.
Four is a straight-shooter, intent on completing his work on time and minimizing any obstacles that would slow down reaching that goal. Nine is a free spirit, less inclined to follow rigid rules or structure and yearning to explore and mingle with the locals.
This is the first work I've read by Dave Eggers, known for "literary fiction" with a lot to say about the present human condition, etc. The whole novel could be seen as an allegory for the path of life and the way a person conducts themselves upon it and the choices they make, with the road serving as metaphor for that journey.
The Parade could easily be interpreted to be about commitment, goals, responsibility, morals, ethics and the road one choses to build and travel upon. Do I think that is what Eggers intended to do? Like another literary work I recently read (Lincoln In The Bardo) it's impossible to figure out what the real message or moral of The Parade is.
There are some scenes in this novel that are very touching, heart-warming and up-lifting. However, Eggers ends the story on a downer, which is why I'm having trouble determining what he wants to say here.
My recommendation is to read this for quick entertainment; and any message, moral or parable you can get out of The Parade is just ice cream.
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