24 Hours in Nowhere: 11/24/18

24 Hours in Nowhere by Dusti Bowling can be summarized as The Treasure of Sierra Madre meets The Goonies. It also fits into my road narrative project as a 6633CC (marginalized, rural, maze) and comes at a time in my project when I've been contemplating theoretical representations of mazes and labyrinths in terms of the road and the road narrative.

As the title implies, the narrative takes place in 24 chapters, each chapter representing one hour of a day from the time Bo Taylor, the bully of Nowhere Arizona confiscates Rossi Scott's prized dirt bike the night before the race. He ransoms it for gold from the Dead Frenchman mine, a notoriously dangerous former mine just outside of town. Since Rossi lost her bike defending Gus, he feels compelled to go into the mine and make the impossible happen.

Although Gus plans to go alone, he is joined by Rossi and friends he didn't know were his friends. At least he didn't know they were close enough to risk their lives with him in the middle of the night in a former gold mine.

What transpires is a tale of survival (after a cave in), of local history (finding the truth behind the man who died in the cave), and a treasure hunt.

For the road narrative, the traveler is a group of almost teenagers who are dirt poor and bullied. They are short on time and have no other options than to do what Bo Taylor tells them. In this regard, they are marginalized (66). Their location is a small, poor, rural town in Arizona (33). Finally, their time spent in a gold mine and cave system has blind alleys, traps, and paths that go back on themselves. This journey through the mine and cave is akin to a maze (CC); it just happens to be one that goes through a mountain. Put all together it's 6633CC, or about midway through the spectrum.

Five stars

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