ATDTDA (11): Chance meetings

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Jimmy Drop has a chance non-meeting on p. 198 that changes Webb's life forever.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Tore Rye Andersen <torerye at hotmail.com>

>Read in the context of the whole novel, though, the passage suddenly gains 
>in significance. Half a page after the excerpt, after Jimmy Drop has advised 
>Willis to become a "Circuit ridin' osteo-whatever-it-is," we're told that:
>
>"Which is how life then took a turn for young Willis Turnstone. [...] one 
>chance meeting with the notorious Jimmy Drop gang among the mind-poisoning 
>vetches and creosote of a dusty high plain was all it took to steer him in a 
>whole 'nother direction." (AtD, 311)
>
>So the excerpt from the Penguin catalogue actually embodies a very important 
>and recurring theme in AtD: How chance meetings can turn a life completely 
>around, lead to new forks in the road, other trails, etc.