Drabblecast 249 – Jimmy’s Roadside Cafe

[Lisa3737]

I really enjoyed this story (the author's previous story Creature was also terrific)!

[danooli]

Loved this one enough for me to actually post on these forums It was dark, but it was sweet and somewhat hopeful. Nice.

[ROU Killing Time]

Welcome to the both of you. Have some calamari.

[cinnamon]

I loved this story so much I wanted to take it into my arms and offer it some brandy and a stale donut. And I am not ashamed to admit that things got real dusty in here by the end.

[Douglas Hackle]

I liked this one. Yeah, sure, I found it to be a little bit on the maudlin side. However, I thought the maudlin stuff was effectively offset by the quirky stuff, making the whole thing work. The author's strong prose also helped keep things engaging; I'm a big sucker for well-constructed, polished sentences, and this story's got 'em.

[silverflute]

Not gonna lie, I definitely had tears down my face by the end of this one. I felt like it was a bit much with the emotional heavy-handedness, at times verging on tacky, but it still totally got to me. The scene where they bury the children, followed by Margaret dying watching the sun reflect off windshields, yeesh! Beautiful beautiful story.

[strawman]

Does Jimmy remind anyone else of Joel Osteen?
I could really enjoy this story if I could imagine it happening to Joel.

[bob_d_goat]

I loved this story. It is now officially my favorite after mongoose. I think this one should be nominated for peoples choice.

[Algernon Sydney is Dead]

... I think this one should be nominated for peoples choice.

Well be sure to be here about February-ish to nominate and vote for it.
Of course, it doesn't hurt to Paypal me lots and lots of cash, either.

Welcome aboard, B.D. Goat!

[alaskancritter]

Possibly the best Drabblecast ever. Stopped me dead in my tracks. Thanks Norm.

[Varda]

I loved this story so much and have been mulling it over for days now, trying to put my finger on what was so brilliant about it. I was listening to this while all the crap with the Boston Marathon was going down and it got me thinking about the helpers of the world.

I think the real genius of Jimmy is the fact that he frames his charity as a business. This is something the most charitable people I know do almost reflexively: they help you in a way that makes you feel like you're doing them a favor.

In Jimmy's case, the cafe serves this purpose for the "customers" who come across it. It gives everyone involved a natural way to interact. If he'd offered help outright, then he'd have to overcome people's suspicions, or at the least their pride. But when you go to a restaurant, everyone knows the social script and things suddenly become natural. You're not taking charity - that's just brandy "on the house". Good for advertising, y'know.

But it's all the same for Jimmy. Charity, after all, is an old-fashioned word for "love".

[strawman]

I'm feelin ya, Varda.
It's just that there are times, and this story would be one of them, when love has been blasphemed to the point that there just ain't no damn rose in Spanish Harlem, when despair is the only appropriate response, and when you just need to drive a stake through Joel Osteen's heart.

(Well granted, that last is pretty much all the time.)
Just sayin'.

[Varda]

You found this story that dark? Maybe it's just that I've read McCarthy's "The Road" recently, but this didn't seem like the last hour of humanity to me, grim as it was.

I can't believe I'm referencing this movie in a positive light, but it reminded me most of The Postman with Kevin Costner (not to be confused with the superb Italian film Il Postino).

...you just need to drive a stake through Joel Osteen's heart.

I can't argue with you there. Then again, if we see this story as the redemption of Joel Osteen... well, that just adds whole new layers of intrigue to the thing, particularly Jimmy/Joel getting his face punched out. Maybe we could call it "landscaping" and say it's an improvement on that smarmy grin.

[strawman]

I enjoyed the story lots. Just that Jimmy is what makes this story strange.

I'm not naturally a humbugger, but Jimmy does remind me of that rare, oppressively positive and cheerful personality that is a sure-fire marker for major subsurface structural issues.
Nomesayin?

[Varda]

Jimmy does remind me of that rare, oppressively positive and cheerful personality that is a sure-fire marker for major subsurface structural issues.

That's a very fair point. I guess there's an equal chance that he's a psychopath, a manipulator, or a do-gooder, when you put it that way.

Makes you want to exhume those roadside graves he claims belonged to his family and see what was really underneath...

[strawman]

Nous nous comprenons.

[tbaker2500]

You found this story that dark?

Yes. Yes I did. I get other people were buoyed by it, but it was just too much for me.