Taking the Wall

Taking the Wall is a selection of short stories about the dreams and aspirations of all the would-be Nascar racers across the southern states of America. Jonis Agee has captured the thrill of winning, but more often the frustration of not being to make it to the big one whether it be car failure, money, or skill. But to these backyard racers, there is always the next one. Maybe the car won't take the wall this time and the frustrated racer will finally win.Racing is an obsession to them and because of it families will crumble and divorces will ensue. But this does not deter the racer. He will follow his dream to the end. Three paragraphs really jumped out at me while reading this book of short stories. One in "The First Obligation":"I mean a whole life can't come down to this collection of furniture and photographs, like a bunch of trophies you win in go-cart for just showing up--what kind of a race is that? I mean the sun's going down, my car engine's blown, and I can't even remember enough of my life to cry good tears over it. I feel like I'm rolling loose, about to hit the wall again, and no one's looking anymore."And later"A dream is something you die for," she'd told him, and he'd looked at her, lying drained of blood as if her own dream and not his father's was the thing he should fear. He'd understood then that she loved her husband, that his father hadn't forced her to what was her death bed, she had climbed into it herself. They were lucky, these two people, his parents, he'd come to realize over the next few years. Lucky because they';d been true to their dreams and because they knew what those dreams were. Recognized them out of all the others that must have presented themselves like dancers at the dance." and finally in the short story, "Mystery Numbers":"Late summer when Dale Earnhardt had driven into the wall at the start of the Mountain Dew Southern 500, they said he experienced 'a transient alteration of his consciousness.' Tom was thinking he needed one of those, but hoped it wouldn't take a smack in the wall to do it." These men (and women) always hope that they will be one day up there with the Earnhardts, the LaBontes, the Martins. That is not the main reason, though. It is the car. It is the love of the car and the need for speed. And they keep trying.

This book takes the wall, and keeps going. Flashes of grace illuminate these stories of workaday people who dream of something more. Agee's blue-collar characters come out of the curve in terribly mixed up and out-of-control circumstances, and nearly always manage to grab the wheel and steer the course. If only we all had their sense of direction. Take this book for a spin--it handles well.