The Delivery Man by Joe McGinniss Jr.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Delivery Man by Joe McGinniss Jr is a novel about a group of young adults in Las Vegas. The story is seen through the eyes of Chase, who is one of five friends growing up in Las Vegas. The group is struggling to find meaning in a city of tourists while also navigating the darkness of past trauma.
The book is set in Las Vegas, but locals will notice how certain place names and locations are mixed up. This happens when characters drive down Summerlin Parkway in Green Valley (they are actually at opposite ends of the city) and certain hotel names have been changed (the characters have a suite at the “Palace”, which in the book is located on the strip). I pictured Palace Station in my mind each time the “Palace” hotel is referred to.
At times, The Delivery Man is a realistic portrayal of life in Las Vegas, but the author also contributes to the negative stereotype of Las Vegas as the city of sin. I would have enjoyed reading about the contrast between the main characters with other elements of Las Vegas, such as the sanitized planned communities. The author attempts to describe this contrast in a few ways such as when he describes Chase’s mother’s house under the glow of the Sahara sign. The author is highlighting the differences between the tourist neon world of the strip and the trailer parks of Boulder Highway, where it might be more illustrative to compare the trailer parks of Boulder Highway to the planned communities of Summerlin. This comparison could have opened the reader’s eyes to the aspirational material desires that motivate the main characters. I guess the author was trying to do this by having the characters take “out calls” that frequently ended up in Green Valley or Summerlin, but I think the author could have been more explicit. It would have provided readers with a deeper understanding of life in the city.
Readers should be warned that this novel is fairly graphic, although it skips over direct descriptions of violence and sex. The themes are adult.
This book also reminds me of the film Don Juan. As one of the main themes of each is sexual norms in the information age.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this book since I’m an interested observer of Las Vegas.
