Revolution - Book Review

Revolution, by David Dorrough, is an enigma, a novel of perplexity. The author introduces several well-fleshed-out characters living in greater Los Angles during contemporary times. His narrative-driven story is remarkable in that the reader soon becomes engrossed in the ordinary but complicated lives of his diverse cast of characters until the reader realizes that there is essentially no plot.

Starting out with the immediate lives of a middle-aged, middle-class married couple, the story expands to include the unpredictable lives and challenging behavior of several related family members, friends and acquaintances, and their associates and tangent friends. The existence of these entangled lives keeps the reader engrossed as a “slice of life” since these persons are a cross-section of race, age, sexual orientation, personalities, and philosophies. Their human experiences involving ridiculous situations and dreams or goals that often converge as in the real world. The author’s awareness of “real world” madness is amazing.

Once the reader stops expecting a plot with a mystery, romance, suspense or conflict, and resolution, the reader is so involved with the soap opera interactions of the entangled lives that he wants to see what happens next. Like reading a reality show, the dialogue switches from person to person or groups of people that share the same information from a slightly different perspective. Their lives converge and then drift apart until happenstance brings some of them together again. When meeting up, each person relates what’s going on in their life, whether or not the others are interested.

The author pokes fun at normalcy, what is normal and ordinary, leaving the reader to question, “What is reality?” Family dynamics, melodrama, and distinct characters are evident in the author’s remarkable originality, imagination, and sense of humor. From a pseudo-academic, monologue-speaking, distinguished gentleman and pot-smoking semi-professionals to surly teens and cocky children, the individuals with crazy/weird names are more than representatives of “real” people. They are people that the reader can relate to in his own life.

With his highly sensitive sense of humor, the author takes common daily observations to hilarious extremes.

In an “As the World Turns” flow, the storyteller brings his “Never Ending Story” to an unexpected conclusion leaving the reader wanting to know “what’s next”? The title, Revolution, does not imply a political revolution but to turning around and around as the characters’ lives continue to revolve.