{"id":7071320,"date":"2026-10-01T12:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T12:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7071320"},"modified":"2026-10-01T12:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T12:12:16","slug":"dodge-city-by-patrick-dewitt-is-the-motivation-for-your-travel-existential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7071320","title":{"rendered":"Dodge City by Patrick deWitt: \u2018Is the motivation for your travel existential?\u2019 \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"text\">\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-38463\" src=\"https:\/\/t9z6e6y4.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Dodge-City-195x300.webp\" alt=\"Cover image for Dodge City by Patrick deWitt\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/t9z6e6y4.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Dodge-City-195x300.webp 195w, https:\/\/t9z6e6y4.delivery.rocketcdn.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Dodge-City.webp 260w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px\"\/>I\u2019m always happy to see something new by Patrick deWitt in the publishing schedules. He\u2019s still not leapt over the high bar set by <em>The Sisters Brothers<\/em> for me, but I always enjoy his novels. Set in 1967, <em>Dodge City<\/em> follows Lee Clarke who takes to the road, heading for Canada, after his draft notice is served.<\/p>\n<p><em>Cal saw Lee as a model of 1950s masculinity, and while she couldn\u2019t deny her desire for and enjoyment of him, she was a little disappointed in herself that she has succumbed to the antique figurehead.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>From quintessential small-town America, Lee\u2019s been thrown off his UCLA course after an altercation with a privileged hippie resulting in a suspension of his draft deferment. Three weeks later, he\u2019s neglected to re-enrol and finds himself called up for a fitness test prior to the training which will see him shipped out to Vietnam. Lee\u2019s a practical guy, conventional and solid, the antithesis of Cal, the woman he\u2019s almost been living with, uncomfortable with her druggie, freedom loving pals. He sets himself up with a drive-away, ostensibly delivering an E-Type Jaguar to New Jersey which will take him across the country, calling in on the various scattered members of his family before heading for the border. He\u2019s not seen his father since leaving home and is dismayed by the state he\u2019s in; his mother, who long ago departed to live with her brother in their old Montana family home, delivers a lecture on patriotism; his estranged brother seems settled in the town full of transients he\u2019s fetched up in and his sister appears set on trashing her nursing career with her sexual indiscretions. All four think Lee should knuckle down and serve his country, but he doggedly continues, every day calling Cal who finally picks up on the last day of his journey.<\/p>\n<p><em>Lee Clarke drove through the night to New York City at an even eighty, experiencing pulsing surges of deranged happiness followed by plummeting moments of terror and abhorrence<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Lee\u2019s an ordinary guy faced with circumstances which lead him to step off the track down which his life is heading. He calmly makes his plan, surprised by the reactions of friends and family, not least his unconventional friend Robin who is also facing the draft but has decided to stay. DeWitt\u2019s novel bowls along nicely as Lee heads towards taking an irrevocable step sure that it\u2019s the right thing for him. His story is delivered with an entertaining wit rather than the more outlandish humour of <a href=\"https:\/\/alifeinbooks.co.uk\/2018\/10\/french-exit-by-patrick-dewitt-squewering-the-rich\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>French Exit<\/em><\/a> or the slapstick of <em>The Sisters Brothers<\/em> although there\u2019s a touch of the Wes Anderson about it now and again. Both a road novel and a love story, it has things to say about patriotism and what one\u2019s country asks one to do which seems pertinent in today\u2019s climate. I wondered if it had been prompted by deWitt\u2019s status as a Canadian living in the US over the last couple of years, something its final few words seemed to underline.<\/p>\n<p>4th Estate Books: London 9780008781347 272 pages Hardback (NetGalley)<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-border-color is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\" style=\"border-style:none;border-width:0px;margin-top:32px;margin-bottom:32px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" style=\"margin-bottom:24px\"\/>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" style=\"margin-top:4px;margin-bottom:10px\">Discover more from A Life in Books<\/h3>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"margin-top:10px;margin-bottom:10px;font-size:15px\">Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m always happy to see something new by Patrick deWitt in the publishing schedules. He\u2019s still not leapt over the high bar set by The Sisters Brothers for me, but I always enjoy his novels. Set in 1967, Dodge City follows Lee Clarke who takes to the road, heading for Canada, after his draft notice [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7071321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[77347,232349,2177,232352,9908,232350,14821,24076,1613,232351,542],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7071320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-4th-estate-books","tag-amercan-historical-fiction","tag-city","tag-dewitt","tag-dodge","tag-dodge-city","tag-existential","tag-motivation","tag-patrick","tag-patrick-dewitt","tag-travel"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dodge City by Patrick deWitt: \u2018Is the motivation for your travel existential?\u2019 \u00a0 - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Book reviews, snippets of book news, and alerts about books outside the glare of the publicity spotlight.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7071320\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dodge City by Patrick deWitt: \u2018Is the motivation for your travel existential?\u2019 \u00a0 - 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