Citizen Vince

by Jess Walter

Overview

Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel of the Year

“You just have to read it . . . . Utterly inventive. . . excruciatingly breathless." —Maureen Corrigan, Washington Post

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins: a riveting story of witness protection, petty thievery, local politics, and murder—set against the turbulent backdrop of the 1980 presidential election

It’s the fall of 1980, the last week before the presidential election that pits the downtrodden Jimmy Carter against the suspiciously sunny Ronald Reagan. In a seedy suburban house in Spokane, a small-time crook formerly from New York, Vince Camden, pockets his weekly allotment of stolen credit cards and heads off to his witness-protection job at a donut shop. At the shop he takes a shine to a regular named Kelly, who works for a local politician. Somehow he finds himself and the politician in a parking lot at three in the morning, giving the slip to a couple of menacing thugs. And then he crosses the path of a young detective—and discovers his credit-scam partner, lying dead in his passport-photo office with a Cheerio-size bullet-hole in his head. No one writing crime novels today tells a story or sketches a character with more freshness or élan than Jess Walter. Citizen Vince is his funniest and grittiest book yet.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061577659
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/17/2008
Series:	P.S. Series
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Jess Walter is the author of seven previous novels, including the bestsellers The Cold Millions and Beautiful Ruins, the National Book Award Finalist The Zero, and Citizen Vince, winner of the Edgar Award for best novel. His short fiction, collected in The Angel of Rome and We Live in Water, has won the O. Henry Prize, the Pushcart Prize and appeared three times in Best American Short Stories. He lives in his hometown of Spokane, Washington.

Hometown:

Spokane, Washington

Date of Birth:

July 20, 1965

Place of Birth:

Spokane, Washington

Education:

B.A., Eastern Washington University, 1987

Website:

http://www.jesswalter.com

Read an Excerpt

Citizen Vince
A Novel

Chapter One

One day you know more dead people than live ones.

The thought greets Vince Camden as he sits up in bed, frantic, casting around a dark bedroom for proof of his existence and finding only props: nightstand, dresser, ashtray, clock. Vince breathes heavily. Sweats in the cool air. Rubs his eyes to shake the dust of these musings, not a dream exactly, this late-sleep panic -- fine glass thin as paper, shattered and swirling, cutting as it blows away.

Vince Camden pops his jaw, leans over, and turns off the alarm just as the one, five, and nine begin their fall. Each morning at 1:59 he sits up like this and turns off the clock radio in the split second before two and the shrill blast of alarm. He wonders: How is a thing like that possible? And yet ... if you can manage such a trick -- every morning waking up a few ticks before your alarm goes off -- why couldn't you count all the dead people you know?

Start with Grandparents. Two sets. One grandfather had a second wife. That's five. Vince runs a toothbrush over his molars. Mother and father. Seven. Does a stillborn sister count? No. A person has to have been alive to be dead. By the time he finishes his shower, blow-dries his hair, and gets dressed -- gray slacks, longsleeve black dress shirt, two buttons open -- he's gone through family, neighbors, and former associates: already thirty-four people he knows to be dead. Wonders if that's high, if it's normal to know so many dead people.

Normal. That word tails him from a safe distance most days. He opens a drawer and pulls out a stack of forged credit cards, looks at the names on the cards: Thomas A. Spaulding. Lane Bailey. Margaret Gold. He imagines Margaret Gold's lovely normal life, a crocheted afghan tossed over the back of her sofa. How many dead people could Margaret Gold possibly know?

Vince counts out ten credit cards -- including Margaret Gold's -- and puts these in the pocket of his windbreaker. Fills the other pocket with Ziploc bags of marijuana. It's 2:16 in the morning when Vince slides his watch onto his wrist, careful not to catch the thick hair on his forearm. Oh yeah, Davie Lincoln -- retarded kid used to carry money in his mouth while he ran errands for Coletti in the neighborhood. Choked on a half-dollar. Thirty-five.

Vince stands in the tiny foyer of his tiny house, if you can call a coatrack and a mail slot a foyer. Zips his windbreaker and snaps his cuffs out like a Vegas dealer leaving the table. Steps out into the world.

About Vince Camden: he is thirty-six and white. Single. Six feet tall, 160 pounds, broad-shouldered and thin, like a martini glass. Brown and blue, as the police reports have recorded his hair and eyes. His mouth curls at the right corner, thick eyebrows go their own way, and this casts his face in perpetual smirk, so that every woman who has ever been involved with him eventually arrives at the same expression, hands on hips, head cocked: Please. Be serious.

Vince is employed in midlevel management, food industry: baking division -- donuts. Generally, there is less to making donuts than one might assume. But Vince likes it, likes getting to work at 4:30 in the morning and finishing before lunch. He feels as if he's gotten one over on the world, leaving his place of employment for lunch and simply not coming back. He's realizing this is a fixed part of his personality, this desire to get one over on the world. Maybe there is a hooky gene.

Outside, he pulls the collar of his windbreaker against his cheeks. Cold this morning: late October. Freezing, in fact -- the steam leaks from his mouth and reminds him of an elementary school experiment with dry ice, which reminds him of Mr. Harlow, his fifth-grade teacher. Hanged himself after it became common knowledge that he was a bit too fond of his male students. Thirty-six.

It's a serene world from your front steps at 2:20 in the morning: dim porch lights on houses black with sleep; sidewalks split the dark dewed lawns. But the night has a grimmer hold on Vince's imagination, and he shivers with the creeping sensation -- even as he reminds himself it's impossible -- that he's on the menu tonight.

" So what ... YOU want me to do this thing or not?" The two men stare across the bench seat of a burgundy Cadillac Seville. The driver asks: "How much would something like that cost?"

The bigger man, in the passenger seat, is impatient, restless, but he pauses to think. It's a fair question. After all, it is 1980, and the service industries are mired in this stagnant economy, too. Are the criminal sectors subject to the same sad market forces: inflation, deflation, stagflation? Recession? Do thugs suffer double-digit unemployment?

Do criminals feel malaise?

"Gratis," quotes the passenger.

"Gratis?" repeats the driver, shifting in the leather seat.

"Yeah." And after a pause: "Means free."

"I know what it means. I was just surprised. That's all. You're saying you'll help me out with this guy for free?"

"I'm saying we'll work something out."

"But it won't cost me anything?"

"We'll work it out."

And it says something about the man driving the Cadillac that in addition to not knowing what the word gratis means, he also doesn't realize that nothing is free.

Citizen Vince
A Novel. Copyright © by Jess Walter. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Reading Group Guide

Group Questions and Topics for Discussion

1. The epigraph of Citizen Vince comes from the Tao Te Ching: "A great nation is like a great man ... he thinks of his enemy as the shadow that he himself casts." How does Ray Sticks serve Vince's shadow? Who is the shadow that Dupree must confront? And Beth? Jimmy Carter?


2. Vince Camden's interior monologue is often in the second person ("One day you know more dead people than live ones.") What does this say about him? When do we generally think of ourselves as you, in the second person? How is Vince's interior monologue sparked by the presidential debate?


3. As he's listening to the debate between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, Vince thinks that we sometimes miss the larger tides of history because we're so focused on waves of news and gossip. How are the issues that the candidates debate similar to the issues our country faces now? How are the issues and the rhetoric different?


4. Does Vince's infatuation with Kelly represent more than just an attraction to a beautiful girl? How does it differ from his relationship with Beth? What is it the two women want? Does the woman that Vince winds up with in the end of the book tell us anything about the true nature of the changes he has made?


5. A handful of fictionalized versions of historical figures appear in Citizen Vince, from John Gotti to Jimmy Carter. How do these "real people" affect your enjoyment of the novel? Do they lend it some credence or do they distract from the story? Why do you think the author chose to include these characters?


6. The sense of place is as important to Citizen Vince as any of the characters. How do Spokane and New York differ in Vince's eyes? How do they differ in Ray's eyes? By the end of the book, why does Vince think of Spokane as his home?


7. The novel doesn't make it clear which candidate Vince voted for. Who do you think he voted for? Does it matter in the framework of the novel?


8. Vince only reads the beginning of novels, because he is so often let down by the endings. Novels, he thinks, can only end one of two ways, artfully (forced and manipulated) or truthfully (ambiguously or more often, badly). How do you think he would like the ending of Citizen Vince?

About the author

Jess Walter is the author of three novels, Citizen Vince, Land of the Blind and Over Tumbled Graves, a "New York Times" Notable book. He is also the author of the nonfiction book Every Knee Shall Bow (Ruby Ridge) and coauthor of Christopher Darden's bestselling memoir, In Contempt. Walter also writes essays, screenplays, short stories and poetry. He lives with his family in Spokane, Washington.

Editorial Reviews

Refreshing ... entertaining ... For readers who appreciate wry precision and expert timing, it may be enough to know that “Citizen Vince” arrives with sky-high praise from both Ken Bruen and Richard Russo, with whom Mr. Walter shares these qualities. For others, the book’s fusion of humor, crime and politics may be recommendation enough.” — Janet Maslin, New York Times

“You just have to read it ... Utterly inventive ... excruciatingly breathless … Maybe if Aaron Copland had written the score for a film noir starring the Marx Brothers there would be some prototype for Walter’s fusion fiction, but he didn’t and there isn’t.” — Maureen Corrigan, Washington Post

“(An) immensely entertaining crime thriller and wry social commentary.” — Chicago Tribune

“Fresh and different—a gritty story of betrayal, and an extended riff on life, death, and politics. Walter is a literary talent writ large.” — Boston Globe

“It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book as compulsively, indeed greedily, as I read Citizen Vince. Here are characters who seem to live of their own volition, who talk out of a terrible inner need to make themselves known and understood, who reveal not just themselves but the yearning heart of our great flawed democracy.” — Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Empire Falls

“With a multitude of scruffy, likable characters and a hopping plot, the story moves along, at turns gritty, funny, poignant and, despite some bloody crimes, surprisingly charming.” — The Oregonian (Portland)

“Rich in robust characters ad wry dialogue, with agile prose, a big heart and a finely tuned plot.” — Seattle Times

“The magic—and, yes, that’s the correct word—of “Citizen Vince” comes from the character of the protagonist and the setting he finds himself in.” — Spokesman Review

“Admirably unpredictable ... a story full of wonderful small surprises. Dispassionate and compassionate by turns, and always engrossing. Walter’s best by far.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“A splendidly entertaining, thoughtful book. . . . Jess Walter continues to impress.” — Sunday Telegraph

“This tale of unlikely redemption works because of Walter’s virtuoso command of character and dialogue—along with a wicked second-act twist. . . with its Capara-like spirit, it serves as a surprisingly satisfying antidote to the avalanche of cynical chatter emanating from this year’s political campaigns and commentators.” — Booklist

“What makes Walter’s third novel so enjoyable is Vince, a flawed but sympathetic character trying to find redemption.” — Library Journal

“Citizen Vince is the book of 2005 for me. I flat-out adore it. The dialogue is marvelous, and the characters-man, they sing. It’s a stunning, moving piece of work.” — Ken Bruen, author of The Magdalene Martyrs

From the Publisher

(An) immensely entertaining crime thriller and wry social commentary.

Chicago Tribune

Rich in robust characters ad wry dialogue, with agile prose, a big heart and a finely tuned plot.

Seattle Times

A splendidly entertaining, thoughtful book ... Jess Walter continues to impress.

Sunday Telegraph

(An) immensely entertaining crime thriller and wry social commentary.

Chicago Tribune

A splendidly entertaining, thoughtful book ... Jess Walter continues to impress.

Sunday Telegraph

Two stream-of-consciousness riffs at the center of the novel even take readers into the minds, respectively tortured and serene, of Carter and Reagan. The excruciatingly breathless climax of this novel pits the claims of civic responsibility against those of self-preservation as Vince insists on exercising his voting rights in the face of almost certain oblivion. In its coarse, violent and very funny way, Citizen Vince is an affecting testament to American faith in the common man as well as to the resilient possibilities of the crime novel.
— The Washington Post

Maureen Corrigan

… Mr. Walter's voice is too entertaining to turn flat. For readers who appreciate wry precision and expert timing, it may be enough to know that Citizen Vince arrives with sky-high praise from both Ken Bruen and Richard Russo, with whom Mr. Walters shares these qualities. For others, the book's fusion of humor, crime and politics may be recommendation enough.
— The New York Times

Janet Malsin

A petty thief bucks one system to join another. Notching his first felony at 15, Marty Hagen, the quintessential New York City street kid, has a rap sheet to be reckoned with by the time he's 36. Not that there's anything really lurid on it-certainly nothing violent-it's just nonstop. And then suddenly, almost by accident, Marty becomes a person of interest to the feds, a circumstance that leads to a new name, a new location, and the makings of a new life. Farewell Marty, hail Vince (Camden), reborn, as it were, courtesy of the Witness Protection Program. Though at first Spokane, Washington, rattles his urban sensibilities ("Everyone drives everywhere, even the ladies"), Vince soon grows fond. He gets to like the quirkiness, discovers that the measured pace suits him after all, allowing time for an interest in things that would once have seemed exotic: presidential politics, for instance. The time is 1980, eight days short of the election between Reagan and Carter, and Vince plans to do what he's never done before: vote. Moreover, there are women in his life, two of them, actually, good women in their differing ways. He even likes the kooky job the feds have found for him, donut maker-manager of the estimable Donut Make you Hungry establishment. Then, after two equable years, enter Ray (Sticks) Scatieri, hit-man extraordinaire, emissary from the mob, with an overdue bill in his bloodied hands. Well, exactly who sent him? Why now? Is there a way Vince can square himself in time to render the contract null and void? The answers are admirably unpredictable. This, in fact, is a story full of wonderful small surprises-among them Vince's way of finally achieving citizenhood. Dispassionate andcompassionate by turns, and always engrossing. Walter's best by far (Land of the Blind, 2003, etc.).

Kirkus Reviews