Just for practice - Some notions after reading “Another Bullshit Night in Suck City”



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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