| "It was like
viewing a geometric progression in reverse; he saw options as they narrowed: at which
stage, at which phase, at which time, at which place he could have still Escaped the
building trap: this step taken, that one not, another taken in a different direction:
sixteen choices, then four, only two, and finally--..." |
 |
With this funneling
vision, Jim Girard, the main character of "This Day's Death," sees his life
wrestled free of his control and left to channel off into the twin nightmares of hovering
death and silent injustice that borders his life. To one side is his aged mother, with
whom he lives in Texas, sharing with her the twilight existence of chronic undefined
illness; an illness Jim comes to view as a "war" between mother and child,
complete with skirmishes based on the fear of lost love and death. On the other side
stands a trial in Los Angeles on a charge that exposes Jim to the depths and intricacies
of society's twisted conceptions of justice and privacy.
Between these two destructive poles, Jim strives to keep what is left of his
life--his girl, his job, his future as an aspiring law student--free of the knowledge and
implications of the trial and also unscathed by the corrosive attention that his mothers
illness demands of him. |
As in his previous books, the author offers us a moment
of time and place in America that is sliced away from
generalities and left on its own to either survive or
succumb. It is a dark picture, drawn with skill,
compassion and accuracy, of a man whose
chances are lost and who is left
with only his dignity
and depth of
feeling.
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