‘America’ is a short snippet into the world of musicians, Ghost and Steve, as they road-trip through the desert on the way to a gig. Travelling through this featureless landscape at night, Ghost unconsciously starts singing a song Steve hates (the conflict). As a distraction Steve decides to tell the story of the ‘Man-Headed Cat’.
Tension gradually increases
towards the punchline and as readers we feel this in the reactions of Ghost.
Like him, we are hearing the story for the first time. Steve’s long pause at
the end leaves Ghost to ask essentially, ‘and then what?’ which leads to the comic
relief/punchline.
The characters are completely
believable. Ghost (who could come across as, ‘a true thing of ectoplasm’) is strengthened through his innocent
reactions to Steve’s story. You can see that the pair, as opposite as they are,
are completely comfortable with one another. They have been friends for
thirteen years, and their habitual relationship shows.
The author describes the
setting perfectly without slowing the narrative. At the start we are caught up
in the long journey. ‘Glittering black
ribbon into nowhere’ perfectly sums up the scene of driving through a dark
desert with little to look at. We are taken into the car with the characters,
primarily through Steve’s eyes as he is most unfamiliar with the stretching
landscape. We get to know the two men and get a brief look into their life.
The plot is an urban legend
being told as two companions drive down an endless desert at night, the perfect
setting to imagine such a tale into existence. The plot of the story within the
story is resolved at the end, but Steve and Ghost’s journey has not ended,
leaving more opportunities for other stories.
This story was essentially
written for fans of the book ‘Lost Souls’
so we could be kept informed of what Steve and Ghost were up to. Its structure
as a complete short story means it can be read by anyone, young adult and up
(because of the cursing).
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