Another BS Night In Suck City Quote
Quotes from ABN
Nick Flynn’s novel, or rather, his memoir: Another Bullshit Night in Suck City centers on the relationship between his father, Jonathan Lynn, and himself. In the memoir, he presents his life story, his father’s, and his perception of his father through various encounters. Nick Flynn shows his complicated emotion toward his father in the following passage:
“Sometimes I'd see my father, walking past my building on his way to another nowhere. I could have given him a key, offered a piece of my floor. A futon. A bed. But I never did. If I let him inside I would become him, the line between us would blur, my own slow-motion car wreck would speed up. The slogan on the side of a moving company truck read TOGETHER WE ARE GOING PLACES--modified by a vandal or a disgruntled employee to read TOGETHER WE ARE GOING DOWN. If I went to the drowning man the drowning man would pull me under. I couldn't be his life raft” (11).
It may seems as if Nick Flynn feels disgusted or resentful toward his dysfunctional father. As a reader, one may even consider Nick Flynn as a cold-blooded and selfish son who disregards and neglects his father in such way. However, the above quote contains nothing more than his fear toward his father, for he knows the similarity that connects them through the blood line. It is a similarity of drifting off the course and falling into quicksand, a quicksand made out of addiction, carelessness and failure. He is afraid that his father can have such negative impact that could alter his life and ruin it. He is terrified that he would never be able to put his life back together with his father there. In short, he admits that he is not strong enough to save his father, and he is unsure if he could even save himself if his father were to get too close. Although afraid of his father, Nick does recognize the poor and unavoidable condition that his father lives in. He understands that “what you fear your whole life comes to pass. You end up living
Nick Flynn’s novel, or rather, his memoir: Another Bullshit Night in Suck City centers on the relationship between his father, Jonathan Lynn, and himself. In the memoir, he presents his life story, his father’s, and his perception of his father through various encounters. Nick Flynn shows his complicated emotion toward his father in the following passage:
“Sometimes I'd see my father, walking past my building on his way to another nowhere. I could have given him a key, offered a piece of my floor. A futon. A bed. But I never did. If I let him inside I would become him, the line between us would blur, my own slow-motion car wreck would speed up. The slogan on the side of a moving company truck read TOGETHER WE ARE GOING PLACES--modified by a vandal or a disgruntled employee to read TOGETHER WE ARE GOING DOWN. If I went to the drowning man the drowning man would pull me under. I couldn't be his life raft” (11).
It may seems as if Nick Flynn feels disgusted or resentful toward his dysfunctional father. As a reader, one may even consider Nick Flynn as a cold-blooded and selfish son who disregards and neglects his father in such way. However, the above quote contains nothing more than his fear toward his father, for he knows the similarity that connects them through the blood line. It is a similarity of drifting off the course and falling into quicksand, a quicksand made out of addiction, carelessness and failure. He is afraid that his father can have such negative impact that could alter his life and ruin it. He is terrified that he would never be able to put his life back together with his father there. In short, he admits that he is not strong enough to save his father, and he is unsure if he could even save himself if his father were to get too close. Although afraid of his father, Nick does recognize the poor and unavoidable condition that his father lives in. He understands that “what you fear your whole life comes to pass. You end up living