CH 10: Losing Les Backstory
The Losing Les chapter is the longest in the book at 56 pages. I’d have to say it might be my favorite for several reasons. I think it encapsulates the entire novel and McGhee’s particular struggle with family and personal identity.
I very nearly stopped half way through the chapter shortly after the Jaime section, but I’m glad I didn’t. Taken as a whole, it illustrates McGhee’s interactions with strangers and the peculiar solace he takes from them again and again. This, in concert with the last section in the comfort of his family demonstrates a man plagued with regret and doubt, how strangers befriend him and how he himself begins to come to terms with his path.
Winnemucca, NV, near the airport (yes, it's out there).
In the first third or so of the chapter, McGhee meets a man named Jaime who picks him up after running out of gas on I-80 and takes him home to dinner with his family. I really enjoyed writing this section and found Jaime to be one of the best inventions of the novel. His good heart and sense of humor, as well as the hectic dynamic of a young family felt very credible to me. I was rather worried, however, that my portrayal might have been patronizing in some way, which I wanted to avoid at all costs. Luckily I had a ringer at my disposal: friend, historian and NYU Associate Professor Maria Montoya, who gave it a read-through. I’d like to give her a shout-out of thanks and suggest if you’re looking for a US history text, to consider hers, “Global Americans: A History of the United States,“ which looks fascinating. That said, this wasn’t the only challenge of the chapter.
In Losing Les I had to visualize something I’ve never had to deal with in real-life: the loss of a brother. Both Les and Wil are loosely based upon my brothers, so it was very emotional to consider losing one of them. I should point out neither of my real brothers share the weakness of their book counterparts or their actions. This in itself made me a little squeamish writing it, but I’ve assured them this is the case and it indeed is. The real brothers are great guys. I also mixed them a bit in the course of writing – the bottle of Courvoisier and the related letter, for instance, were real events, but properly ascribed to Wil (my brother Jim), not Les (my brother Tom). I should also note none of the strife with Les happened in real-life. We recently endured the loss of our mother and they were both incredibly supportive. Speaking of my mom, Les and Wil were the names of two of her brothers.
Rawlins, WY, Cemetery, courtesy Google Street View.
The Losing Les chapter was, in fact, entirely fictional. It was the 4th chapter written so it was early in the process. Until that point I hadn’t written an entirely fictional chapter (i.e., none of those chapter events or people were real or ever happened), so I was a bit concerned that might be apparent in the writing. I’m relieved to report I don’t think that is the case, and it came out as one of the best.
Though I’ve driven across I-80 a couple times, I’m not sure I ever spent any time in Winnemucca, NV, or Rawlins, WY, the two primary sites of the story action. I had to rely on Google Street View for a bunch of that. This was particularly helpful in Rawlins. The details are accurate but based upon a virtual tour I conducted via Google, and it was an interesting experience. I’d have to say I have an attachment to Rawlins, WY, now, even though I don’t think I’ve ever actually been there.
Regarding Earl Hobbs in Utah, he's not real either, though I did steal the last name of a friend of mine from my days on assignment at Intel back in the 90s.
As for Les’s Rawlins restaurant, the Pie Tin, it is fictitious. The funny thing is, I thought I had invented a clever name for it on the fly as I was writing, but discovered this was not the case. There’s a local seasonal area near where I live called Apple Hill which is especially popular in the fall. I was surprised recently to notice one of vendors had a pastry counter called, you guessed it, the Pie Tin. I must have stored that away in the recesses of my brain.
The Pie Tin, at Boa Vista Orchards, Placerville, CA.
If you’re ever at Boa Vista Orchards, stop in for something to eat. Their strudel is amazing!
