Damon goes through his daily life in an endless struggle:
he has a girlfriend he loves, but whose family hates him. He has a job that
barely pays the bills and he loathes every second of every day. He has to deal
with co-workers he loathes and a boss he despises. His friends have all the
depth and subtly of a hammer and are a constant aggravation. He has no family,
his home is terrible.
And he has The Rage. The constant, all consuming rage
that powers him through his day. The vast well of fury that is slowly changing
him even as it gives him the power to keep going. But as The Rage gives him the
strength to keep moving it also could destroy everything.
This book begins very interestingly. We have our
protagonist utterly consumed by constant, overwhelming, all consuming rage.
Every moment of his life is spent reigning it in, living with it, trying to
control it, trying not to completely lose himself to it. It affects his every
interaction, his every relationship, his every single moment of every single
day.
There are many books where we have supernatural creatures
battling against the supernatural induced rage – but I don’t think I’ve ever
come across a book that so accurately portrays what an overwhelming exhausting
struggle it is. How painful it is, how extremely hard it is to live with such
incredible rage all the time.
On top of that the rage looks sharply at the society
Damon lives in – in our society. He looks at a world where every day he gets
up, goes to work, suffers miserably with a wretched job, even doing extremely
well at it, with no pleasure, no joy and not even enough to earn a decent
living from it. Every day he works, loathing every second of it, hating his
boss – and in the end of all that effort, all that suffering even all that
success, he’s not even earning enough money to live anywhere but a slum. He’s
not even earning enough money to placate his girlfriend’s mother.
This book touches many of the unjust elements of Damon’s
life and, through it, our society in general – the patriarchal expectations
forced on him trying to be “worthy” of Monica (and worth is strictly linked wealth
and earnings. This is so strongly laid down that even her abusive ex is
considered a better candidate, even with his abuse, because he’s a good earner
and goes to church: the fact he is violent and hurt her never comes close to
mattering as much as his bank account and social position.). How effort and
even performance is no real guarantee of getting that much worth. Of how women
often have to tolerate constant sexual harassment at work without saying
anything. Of living a life which is nearly always consumed by doing things we
hate just to find a few brief moments of happiness.
The only issue I have wit this depiction is that Damon’s
all consuming rage pretty much puts everything on the same level. His hating
his job and being judged for it is rage inducing – but so is waiting in line in
the supermarket or someone talking to him at the bus stop. Is this social
commentary or is it just supposed to be Damon’s irrational rage at “normal”
things?
