VLVL Zoyd: good dad or bad dad?

[jbor]

Claims about Zoyd being depicted as the model father don't hold up to much
scrutiny. There's the nappy episode and the boysenberry yoghurt (308), but
that's about it. But there is quite a bit more in the novel to suggest that
his parenting record isn't really up to scratch.

Apart from cigarettes, beer and dope, groceries in Zoyd's house consist of
Count Chocula, Froot Loops, Nestle's Quik (3-4), Cheet-os and "grapefruit
soda from the health food shop" (14). Prairie makes guacomole and tortilla
chips for dinner (18). Poor kid, no wonder she has "weight problems" (327).

Zoyd has a long history of dumping his daughter on others: sending her off
to a Mob wedding with Isaiah isn't the first time. When she was an infant he
dumped her on Sasha so he could chase Frenesi to Hawaii (56), and then over
an extended period of time after that when he got the Kahuna Airlines gig
(61-2); after the drug bust he leaves her in Eureka "with friends ... all
week" when they first arrive in Vineland (325-6).

When Zoyd does send Prairie off with Isaiah he "agreed to keep in touch
through Sasha" (54). Of course, this never happens: Prairie tries to call
Sasha (325), but Zoyd is too caught up spying on his house, ferrying drugs
out of Holytail, and trying to organise various crazy and violent revenge
schemes through his lawyer, and through Isaiah, Van Meter and the Harleyite
nuns to keep his promise (356-61, 372-3). Seems that short-attention-span
Zoyd has forgotten all about Prairie, about keeping in touch via Sasha, and
it's Hector yet again who fills him in on where his "kid" is (360-1).

After all the crises and trauma she's suffered, at the picnic when Zoyd
finally does meet up with Prairie again we're told bluntly that he and Flash
"went off for some beer" (370).

Zoyd's likeable enough, and Prairie gets on with him, but as a parent he
leaves a lot to be desired, which I think is part of the reason that Prairie
heads off into the woods to be alone, even before she calls out to Brock to
come back and take her away: "It's OK, rilly. Come on, come in. I don't
care. Take me anyplace you want." (384)

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