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John Gregory Dunne died in December 2003 at the age of seventy-one. His wife, acclaimed writer Joan Didion, their daughter, and his brother, Dominick Dunne, survive him. For more than forty years Dunne wrote fiction, nonfiction, essays, opinion pieces and screenplays. His posthumously published book, NOTHING LOST, was in galley proofs when he succumbed to a heart attack. His literary legacy reflects his strengths as a writer and his courage as a thinker. His body of work is a testament to what the "truth of fiction" was about for him. A man of precise words, Dunne was blessed with a superior imagination and the ability to infuse his novels with a hard edge, finessed with a bit of humor and sprinkled throughout with cogent cynicism.
NOTHING LOST is an "American story." The novel strikes at the heart of the vivid violence, truculent taciturnity, arcane attitudes, hardly hidden hypocrisy and redundant racism as it resides in the heartland of the United States. The notion of "justice" plays a major role in the story. The system is carefully parsed as it rushes at the reader, carried along on a tide of political partisanship; prejudices toward those who may have homosexual orientations and proclivities; greed; gossip; and a soon-to-be no-holds barred trial that could have taken place in 1934, as easily as it plays itself out in 2004. The times are just not a changin' and John Gregory Dunne made sure everyone knows it.
Dunne had only to turn to any 24/7 cable news station, or scan his daily newspaper for a few days, or peruse the newsweeklies, or read the headlines in the tabloids at the local supermarket to find inspiration for NOTHING LOST. Rather than limn flat, stock characters, he plucked their souls from the popular culture and shaped them into his novel around symbols, stereotypes and real people in order to provoke readers into transcending their ennui. One can almost hear his shouting from the pages, "Get Angry!" "Do Something!" "The world can be a better place … it's up to you!" The architecture of the novel finds its foundation on the ethereal notion that each citizen has a responsibility to his community and to his neighbor. Dunne pushes readers to try to understand the violence that pervades our lives --- the craziness Americans are baffled by, outraged about, frightened of, too often blind to and in denial over what is happening as the world turns.
In a fictional place called South Midland, USA, a black man named Edgar Parlance is skinned alive, savagely beaten, branded with a "P" and then shot in the head. "His death, and the obscene brutality of it, immediately captured the headlines and the newsbreaks of the gluttonous 24/7 news cycle, searching … for the correct and visually gratifying metaphor to validate the American experience. [Amazing as it may seem] … The New York Times [carried his obituary]: 'Regent, SM, November 1-Everyone who knew him called him 'Gar,' the diminutive of his given name, Edgar. And no one had a bad word for Gar Parlance in this sleepy cattle and farming community … [on the borders of] Kansas and Missouri." Why anyone would kill this man, especially in such a barbaric manner, was beyond the comprehension of everyone and anyone who had anything to say about Mr. Gar Parlance.
All of the townspeople bragged about how much they cared about Gar. They considered themselves his friends. "He mowed their lawns, he hauled their trash, and when the weather was warm and jobs were available, and he felt like it, he did manual labor for the Department of Highways or the Burlington Northern Railroad." Yet, "No one seem[s] to know exactly when Parlance sank his roots into Regent." And "Dead, he had a legitimacy that he never had alive. Dead, he … became an icon. Because dead, people did not have to associate with him. He was a victim, a convenient symbol of man's inhumanity to man, the kind of black man white people can most easily grasp unto themselves. To prove to themselves that the aberrant behavior of the lowest of their kind against the racially less fortunate will not be tolerated. Like limpets, sentiment and innocence attached itself to a victim." But when it came right down to it, nobody knew when he arrived in town, where he came from or anything else about him as a man in full.
Max Cline tells the story: "My name is Max Cline. I'm queer. I'm a Jew. And I'm a lawyer. In South Midland, that trifecta is not exactly a winning ticket in the social sweepstakes. For sixteen years I was a prosecutor in the attorney general's office. A lifer." My homosexuality "was never an apparent problem when I was with the A.G.'s office. Then Gerry Wormwold was elected … to the office. During his campaign, the Worm had … pledged not to violate his Christian principles by appointing a gay person to a senior management position. He could not legally fire me … but he could … [reassign me from] the head of the Homicide Bureau to arraignment hearings and the misdemeanor courts. I quit!"
As chance would have it, the Parlance murder puts Max in a unique position. When the legendary civil rights attorney Teresa Kean comes to town to defend one of Gar's killers she asks him to be second chair. Max is both delighted and shocked. The convict's half-sister, who happens to be the youngest, richest, hottest model to grace fashion runways and magazine covers, hired her. J. J. McClure, who was Max's replacement at the A.G's office, is the prosecutor. His wife, "Congresswoman Sonora (Poppy) McClure, La Pasionara of the Republican right wing … has floated the notion that she might run for governor. Poppy's combative high-octane style [has made her] the best-known politician in the state." The novel doesn't quite have a cast of thousands, but the population of NOTHING LOST is large and as diverse as is real life. The characters are as interesting and flawed as real people are anywhere in the USA.
John Dunne presents his readers with a contrast from the main players to the sideshow crowd that appears in most stories set in rural America. His fans know that when they open one of his novels "something" in their "take" on life and the world is going to change. As readers follow the writer through the tightly plotted, maze-like journey of the narrative they have to trust their guide. He has set some land mines, throws the reader off the scent, scattered false clues and shows confidence in his audience to follow him to the very unexpected conclusion.
Warning: DON'T THINK YOU KNOW HOW IT ENDS. Let the genius of the writer work its magic on your imagination, but don't take bets on the outcome. Just buy your ticket and take your ride with no preconceptions to the surprises in store ... just enjoy the trip and keep the secrets from other readers.
John Gregory Dunne was a most respected man of letters. His novels rise to the level of literary guru-ism. He polished them and perfected them and stood by them with humility. Fans and colleagues will miss him. His legacy will stand the test of time, and he will take his place in the pantheon of great American writers.
--- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum
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