A Map of the Dark [Paperback]

John Dixon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 2005

It’s Halloween night, 1963, in De Pere, Wisconsin, and all is not well. Evelyn Schmidt’s life is almost at an end—she’s been diagnosed with cancer and given only days to live. But she’ll be damned if she’ll go quietly, in the hospital or at home. She’s heading for the Idle Hour to drink up a storm, whether her fellow drinkers want her there or not. Steve Omsted is only sixteen, but it seems to him his life might as well be over. He’s on academic probation, he’s been kicked off the football team, and now his girlfriend has dropped him. He’s looking for an easy target for his rage and has set up a nighttime ambush for his victim. Chuck Williams feels his life hasn’t even started yet—but he can’t wait any longer. Sure, he’ll go trick-or-treating, but he doesn’t want to end up waxing windows with the other fifth-graders; he’s aiming to hang out with the older kids and cause some real trouble. As the evening unfolds, the paths of these and other characters in their town converge in a series of shocking events that will change the lives of everyone involved. In stark language and with bold, cinematic vision, John Dixon delivers a stunning portrait of a small town at war with itself.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Halloween turns into a very grim holiday in Dixon's stark but flawed debut novel about a group of teenage boys on the rampage in small town De Pere, Wis., in 1963. Rambunctious fifth-grader Chuck Williams wants to hang out with the older boys—Omsted, Carner and Rusch—for an evening of more tricks than treats. He gets his wish as the night unfolds, but his choice of companions proves fateful when the gang quickly graduates from wreaking havoc amid innocent revelers to a fight over a girl that ends in the murder of Putzie Van Vonderan. Between descriptions of the teenagers' violent mayhem, Dixon details the downward arc of Evelyn Schmidt, a cancer victim who goes on a drunken bender as her son, David, floats in and out of the chaos. Dixon's story churns with action as the boys hurl insults and test their limits, and Evelyn Schmidt agitates for another drink at the local bar. But the novel's lack of backstory or character development makes the violence of this pivotal Halloween night feel especially random and gratuitous. Though the author demonstrates talent with the dark action sequences in this grim, charged portrayal of smalltown life in the early '60s, the novel remains thin and episodic. (Oct.)
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About the Author

John Dixon was born in De Pere, Wisconsin. He studied playwriting at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, and is the author of several plays. This is his first novel. He recently returned to De Pere, where he lives with his family.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Verse Chorus Press (October 3, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891241214
• ISBN-13: 978-1891241215
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,147,272 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Powerful and Painful, October 29, 2005

By 

Dan (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Map of the Dark (Paperback)

This short novel is an uncompromising study of social dynamics in interlocking groups of children, teenagers, and adults in a small town on an extremely eventful night. A foolish murder plot, its concealment, a moving attempt to foil it, and its execution and aftermath provide the suspenseful through-line.

The different age groups are delightfully characterized but the point of the novel lies in the universality of the drives they have in common.

The style is mostly a highly effective just-the-facts objectivity. This objectivity extends even to the use of a "real time" technique, where every moment in a block of time seems to be accounted for; this can be effective but can also try the reader's memory and patience.

Though the author's intellectual agenda sometimes gets in the way of his story (leading to some symbolic actions that jar against the overall hyper-realism), his relentless concentration on the pain of exclusion and the torments of loneliness gives this book a primal power that makes a lot of literature seem tepid.