A Review
Dumbarton Drive, Bob Rager’s third novel, is a compelling intriguing and engaging story which begins when the unnamed narrator – homeless, jobless and with no money – wanders by accident into the overgrown garden of a mysterious house in one of the wealthier parts of Washington, DC. He is confronted by an eccentric and irascible old man, accompanied by his diminutive but loyal servant, and is nearly shot for his intrusion into the secretive and intriguing grounds of a mansion which seems stuck in the past.
Slowly and with consummate skill, Rager reveals more and more about the old man and his past. The forty-something protagonist is drawn, as is the reader, into a complex web of secrecy, deceit and nostalgia with hidden links to the very highest levels of the US military and political echelons. At the same time Rager allows us to learn more and more about his protagonist and his troubled past. Although this novel is filled with a sense of the past through the old man, his lifestyle and his chaotic collection of memorabilia, Rager also evokes a sense of 21st century Washington – to which the protagonist escapes from time to time to escape the stifling atmosphere of the mysterious mansion and its possessive yet repressed owner.
Dumbarton Drive is a novel which explores the nature of love, the fears and difficulties of ageing, and always keeps the reader guessing. Is the old man as delusional as he seems? Is he living in the past, obsessed with former glory and power? Or does he still possess the keys to the corridors of power? It is a novel which also analyses America’s sense of itself and which ultimately reveals a darker and more sinister side to the official image of the USA. The novel ends in an unexpected flurry of violence, lies and yet more dark secrets.
