Chuang, Che-Kuang
In this raining weekend I read the novel “Another Bullshit Night in Suck City”, a biographical fiction written by Nick Flynn. He used his viewpoint to describe his father, Jonathan Flynn, the man he had never seen in his childhood until he became an adult. This novel has won several awards such as France Prix Femina Award and the best selections of American author association. It was adapt to film in 2012 and was staring by Hollywood star Robert De Niro and young talented actor Paul Dano.
The Author, Nick Flynn delineated his
Father through using his limited memories and hundreds of thousands letters
from Jonathan to collage his image. Jonathan is a loser, drunkard and swindler.
He always tells people that he is such a great writer who could compare with Hemingway
and Fitzgerald, and he has almost finished his autobiography, the masterpiece
of his entire life. However, he is just nothing in the reality - he has never achieved
anything and published any books. He was a salesman and has been sent into
prison due to forging checks. He was not a good family man, too. He abandoned
his wife after he had married two years yet his son was just born. After he
finished his prison sentence, he became a taxi driver in Houston: since he didn’t
have residence, he just lived in the cab. Every day after he wakes up, he
drinks; and being covered in alcohol, sometimes he carries a few passengers in
order to earn tens of US dollars- then spends all of them to buy more Vodka and
gets drunk a whole day.
Jonathan had lived such a bullshit life
until his driver’s license be revoked for drunk driving, and life became worse-
he lost his residence(the cab), his job, and his only resource of money. The
only choice for him was to become a vagrant. He slept on the streets, washed
his cloths and body in the public toilets, and begged for food from the bistro
and shelter. But life is so amazing; this begging of terrible life became the
opportunity for Jonathan to meet his son, Nick, who was working for the Homeless
shelter in the harbor region. At this time Nick was also at a low bow due to
his mother’s death. It was a nightmare for Nick to see his father to live in
the shelter. He also wanted to become a writer; but he didn’t want to become
Jonathan- a loser who abandoned his own family and lost everything he had. He was
afraid of that he was the reflection of his old man, inherited his “Flynn”
family curse to be a loser.
However, in the story Nick chose to face
his parentage: learned to accept and overcome it. He took Jonathan home, gave him
a sofa bed, a hot shower and some food. There was still a barrier between them-
but at least they learned to respect each other. Nick finally understood that
he was not the copy of his father but himself, and Jonathan knew that he had
lived for such absurd life now he had to bestir. A few years later, Jonathan
still didn’t become a writer but got the assistance from the federal government and had a little but clean
house. Nick went back to college and got his bachelor degree. Now he is a
school teacher and has just published his first collection of poems.
In the end of the novel, Nick finally saw
the manuscript of his father’s masterpiece, which he claimed could compare with
“the old man and the sea”. It was about Jonathan’s life- Just like himself, a
broken and suck story. Jonathan was a totally loser not only in the reality but
also in the fiction, and that was a terrible book he could never finish. However,
he gave his story to his son and hoped that he could use it as material to
write a great novel, and Nick did. Even Jonathan’s life was not the kind of inspired
story such as war heroes’ legend or the great leader’s success, Nick still used
it to write a great biographical novel and proved that he was different from Jonathan.
It is a touching novel, so is the movie. I
guess the reason why it is so moving is that it truly and specifically describes
a man’s struggling and failing. In the end there is still no turning point in
Jonathan’s life: he still didn’t become a successful writer, and the rest of
his life was decaying. But through Nick’s writing, we can see this man has
truly lived on the earth, in the details and in the words. Even though it is
not a climaxes legend but a poor and frustrated old guy, it’s still great just
because it is so true. There is no different between mortals’ and immortals’
life, God uses his camera to record every one’s story, and if we got this honor
to see part of them, every section is masterpiece; every life is out of
ordinary.
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