Death
The discovery of dead bodies trapped in a car following the accident is emotionally powerful because of the way the author uses imagery to underplay the moment. Death is made palpably real and viscerally tangible directly as a result of the almost deadpan description:
“I could just see the top of Fin's head poking out of what was probably one of the back doors. It was like he was lying on the floor, the seats and metal crushed on top of him. At least down there he couldn't see the others: Nicole, her head resting gently on her shoulder, and Luke sitting quietly, staring into nothingness.”
The Consequences
The consequences of drunk driving that don’t quite rise to the level of death are also explored through imagery. In this case, it is Fin who is the example from which the consequences can be learned. The full extent of the potential for a life to be altered is situated in what is once again an example of the power of simple, stripped-down descriptive imagery:
“December had been hot and the hospital air conditioning was busted that day. Fin had no sheet over him. His legs had wasted to long pieces of bone wrapped in shiny skin. I couldn't stop staring. These were the legs that had run the length of the field to score the needed try of the season, then kicked the ball through the posts to conversion and victory. posts to conversion and victory.
Now they lay there on the bed, useless, and that was something I just couldn't wrap my head around.”
Black
The novel abounds with references to the color black. Black is used to literally describe things as well as metaphorically to underline mood, atmosphere and emotional space in which the main character is living. The use of black as imagery reaches its climax with the assertive confession of the narrator:
“If I could look at it like that, maybe I could stop myself from falling into the blackness.”
Elvis Costello Was Right
Accidents will happen and the reason we call most of them accidents is that they aren’t foreseen. After all, if one could actually foresee an unexpected event beforehand, it wouldn’t really qualify as an accident, would it. And yet, there are those cases where the specifics may not be known, but the odds are fairly good that a certain person is destined to be involved in an accident. The imagery applied to predictions of the future of Daniel Brennan could be equally well applied to at least one person in everybody’s life. It just so happens that Daniel’s past was such that way more than one person correctly predict to an extent the course his future would take:
“`Daniel Brennan was an accident waiting to happen. Daniel Brennan was an accident waiting to happen. An accident waiting to happen. An accident waiting to happen.’
So how come the township of Mumbilli saw it coming and we didn't?”
