VLVL Zoyd: good dad or bad dad?

[jbor]

> Zoyd's negligence as a father is highlighted nowhere more prominently than
> in the final chapter where, having been separated from Prairie for several
> weeks or more, and not even trying to contact her in the meantime, he heads
> off "looking for beer" when at last she does reappear (370).

And note also how Zoyd leaves when the tv show ends, seemingly without even
noticing that Prairie has arrived. It's as though he'd forgotten about
Prairie and the danger she was in altogether. Apparently beer, the Tube (and
dope) are more important to him.

best

[...]
> 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)