Peter Mendelsund, The Delivery

 

- An exquisite tale told initially in short, sharp, isolated sentences, often just a few per chapter. A young man on a bicycle is doing his daily delivery drop offs. In Part Two long paragraphs become the norm, and Part Three is 32 pages of one sentence. As we soon learn the form mirrors the deepening content. It’s the larger picture that’s important. This is the underworld of illegal immigrants, refugees, and their struggle to work and thrive. They are exploited, abused and neglected. They are victims of scams, thievery and corruption. 

- And occasionally (in brackets) an older and wiser narrator intrudes. It seems to be the boy's older self, reflecting on his family’s escape from their country which was ruled by a 'Stongman' and his ruthless regime. 

- In that country he was a cymbal player in a youth orchestra and a student of languages. He liked the French horn player, a young girl. 

- In his new country a young lady called 'N' is his dispatch clerk at the distribution centre. She favours him at times, but she’s also unkind to him at other times. But he really likes her. A man called ‘Uncle’ checks the delivery boy’s pickups and the Supervisor is a ‘fucker'. He's also abusive.

- In this new country so many former restaurant workers and managers have had to become delivery boys. 

- If they have an accident and damage the bike, they have to pay for the repairs. And on busy streets accidents are frequent.

- In part two a delivery takes him to a new neighbourhood, once upmarket but now derelict, and where delivery boys are prone to assaults from thieves and gangs. 

- He enters a truly poor place…storefronts grated or boarded up…everything written on…the city had fallen to pieces here. Then his navigation app directs him onto a highway. He crosses a bridge, into the upmarket mansions of Manor Grove.

- But there is nothing at his destination. No house, no people, nothing. Night is coming, his bike has been damaged in a fall, and his phone battery is barely 10%. He’s stranded.

- He reflects on his parents and their former country. The secret meetings, and the raid on their house by government thugs. 

- In part three he awakes and manages to briefly call his employer. Despatch girl number 6 answers and tells him to open the packages, just before the phone goes dead. He finds clothes, a large bag of money, food, a new power-assist for the bike, a picture of N as a kid, and a map. He's been gifted hope and the chance of a new life by the kindness of some fellow workers. 

- He's reminded of his time in the orchestra, and the conductor’s sophistication and culture, which stood in stark contrast to that general collective barbarity that would come later down the road.

- A sense of liberation propels him…forward motion is precisely the point…what it means to endure, what endurance requires - the ability to go on, to pedal, to set one’s eyes upriver…a happy life was a headlong life...

- This is a beautifully written, frequently poetic meditation on hardship, yearning, human generosity and hope. It's an extraordinary novel by Peter Mendelsund, a graphic designer and the creative director of The Atlantic.  

- (And look at that simple cover. Like NO. COVER. YOU. EVER. SEE. TODAY)