Chris Leek
Independent Reviewer
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We step back
in time a little this week and take a look at The Motel Life, the first novel by Willy Vlautin. Some of you may know Vlautin
as the front man of the alternative country band Richmond Fontaine. Like his
music Vlautin’s books tell of loners, losers and the disenfranchised.
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When Jerry Lee accidentally kills a
kid in a hit and run they make a bad situation worse and run away. The brothers take flight to Oregon and dream
of living a better life with Frank’s damaged ex-girlfriend, Annie James; only
to find that no matter how hard you try, you can’t out run yourself.
There is an
echo of Steinbeck’s Mice and Men here
and perhaps also a nod towards the bleak existences portrayed by Denis Johnson
in Jesus’ Son. The Motel
Life is noir in its most literal sense. It provides a dark and heart
breaking commentary on alcoholism and suicide as it charts the downward spiral
of people forced by circumstance to play out a losing hand.
Willy Vlautin’s
prose is sparse and at times almost child like in its directness. But he writes
with such compelling honesty that any minor grumbles about his simplistic style
or his stifled character development are swept away by the sheer power of his
narrative.
Motel life is not going to be for everyone and it
is fair to say there are more accomplished and articulate renderings of
America’s third world citizens out there. But for me there is something wonderful
about the naivety of Vlautin’s work that I just can’t shake off. This book
still haunts me five years after I first read it and in spite of its flaws, I still
wish I had written it.
Just as a
quick FYI: a movie adaptation of Motel Life has been completed starring Emile
Hersch and Stephen Dorff as the Flanagan Brothers, with Dakota Fanning as Annie
James. From what I understand the film
is still being shopped around and currently has no set release date.
