Reviewing ‘The Parade’ by Dave Eggers
The tale of two men paving a highway though a desolate warzone
Four is preparing for his 69th assignment of paving a long stretch of road to unite a country from war-torn wastelands to the capital city. Working on a tight schedule in order to make the deadline of a grand parade leaving from the capital city, Four is the perfect man for the job.
The job requires two men; Four and Nine. Four’s role involves driving the RS-90, a large paving machine along a stretch from the decimated south to the capital city in the North, while Nine is tasked with driving a quad up and down the path to clear all obstacles and obstructions.
Four, described as ‘The Clock’, thrives on getting the job done efficiently. He works hard all day, does not interact with any locals, and ends each day by writing in his work log and tucking into a bag of dehydrated food. In contrast, his new partner, Nine, a rookie to the company, is a free-spirited soul, eager to interact with the locals and flaunt off his skills of mastering the local language and understanding of the culture.
Unsurprisingly, the clashes between these two start immediately. Four prides himself on the trust and respect the company has put in him by tasking him with such an important role, paving a new road which will unify a once divided country, and bring new opportunities to rural locals and urban dwellers alike. While the company has advised against communicating with locals, Nine disregards this advice and almost immediately accepts invites to parties, sleeps with women, and hands out goods such as first aid kits, food, and important gear to impoverished households.
It all seems harmless to begin with, however, things quickly change when Nine is stuck gravely ill after ‘frolicking’ in the stream with locals the previous day. This leaves Four in a precarious position, threatening his own job by calling headquarters to let them know the mission has failed, and also threatening his own reputation by neglecting to call in Nine’s behaviour right away. Left with little choice, Four begins for the first time to work with locals Medallion and Cousin to seek out medicine to help save Nine's life.
This is where the story takes a bit of moral turn as Four beings to work with the two locals. At first, Four is hesitant to trust the locals, but slowly he realizes that these locals are kind, honest, and willing to help out of the goodness of their hearts. Four reconciles with Nine and begins to embrace more compassion for the locals, seeing them not as inconveniences to his job, but as humans, equals, and friends.
As the book comes to a close, it seems that both characters have learned valuable lessons, and grown as individuals and friends. However, upon exiting the mission Four watches the Grand Parade leaving from the city, and witnesses an atrocity that casts his entire mission into doubt.
My Impressions:
I think this book, like many other Egger novels, is a fantastic critique of the very things that society deems good and true. The idea of ‘progress’ in any sort, such as a humanitarian mission to pave a large highway through the desolate countryside, should bring only positive outcomes in favour of societal advancement. However, as Eggers successfully illustrates on the last page of the book, this is not always the case.
The Parade provides the reader with a lesson in compassion and understanding as well. Four, a non-trusting foreigner, learns that he can trust and befriend people that are different than himself, and begins to break down his own prejudiced perception with both the locals and his partner, Nine.
