by Myriam J.A. Chancy published in Harper's Magazine
Read original on Harper's Magazine's website
The narrator, a taxi cab driver originally from Ha...Show description
Posted 1230 days ago
I was not a fan of this story, though there were a couple elements and sentences that I did really like. For example, the narrator's reflection on the "usefulness" of dogs is something I think about a decent amount. Dogs were bred for specific things over the years, and now many sit in living rooms all day while their owners are out at work. Military dogs, hunting dogs, sled running dogs, and as the narrator even ponders:
It was hard to believe that they were descendants of dogs that had been trained to track and kill enslaved Africans in Cuba, to dismember them alive.
The narrator then reflects on the sort of people that own dogs, from his perspective in Haiti, and comes to this conclusion:
After Guy went on his way without giving me any part of the tip I’d brought back from the last run, because he’d had to come for the car, I realized that America was like those wealthy women back home: bored out of its mind and careless to the point of cruelty.
I get the metaphor, the roadkill part just seemed like it was searching for an easy emotional response. It would have been nicer another sort of metaphor, I just didn't really connect with this one.