Clarity of Greasy Lake
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"It's about a mile down on the dark side of Route 88" were the opening lyrics that the author of Greasy Lake, T. Coraghessan Boyle, chose from Bruce Springsteen's "Spirits in the Night" to begin the tale. The opening of this story created for me an atmosphere of a rebellious night out with the guys. Free spirited bad boys on the hunt for excitement in the young night, for this was the nature of the song. It was very interesting to see that how as the story progressed, the boys quickly learned they weren't as bad as they thought.
To reinforce my first impression of the story, the first sentence talked about a time when it was good to be bad, when winning ways went out of style, torn leather jackets and toothpicks. These were characteristics associated with "tough" people. The story went on about how the main character, which remained nameless, was accompanied by "two dangerous characters". The fact that he had no name led me to think that he hadn't developed a social identity. I expected these bad boys to be fearless and bold...