September 12, 2022
Sleepwalk by Dan Chaon
Will Bear (one of his many aliases) has lived off the grid for most of his adult life. He is a 50 year old man who basically does not exist: he doesn't have a regular job, home address, telephone, credit card, bank account, or even a Social Security number. All transactions are cash. He does jobs for a shady organization, mostly delivery cargoes, both human and inanimate, and he regularly doses himself with a variety of legal and illegal drugs. His closest relationship is with his rescue dog, Flip, who suffers from PTSD (so does Will). He is on a job to drop off a prisoner in Utah when he starts receiving calls on his many burner phones from a woman who claims to be his biological daughter. He tries to get rid of her but she persists, although he can't figure out how she found him or continues to trace him. But the more she talks to him, the more he believes that they are caught up in a much larger conspiracy.
Futuristic, dystopian, wonderfully paranoid, full of dark humor, and noir-ish. Will isn't a traditional noir hero, more of an antihero: he does questionable work, he gets involved with women he should avoid, he lives by his own code of ethics, he is loyal to his friends, he lives in a dark world. I enjoyed this offbeat novel very much (and yes, the dog is okay at the end of the book). I listened to the audiobook and the narrator had the perfect stoned-out hippie intonation.
Dystopia artwork (hero frequently has a dog in dystopian fiction)
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