Volkswagen Blues

They leave Toronto but, at the girl’s request, soon stop for the night near the grave site of the Mohawk chief Thayendanegea. Because he was a renowned warrior whose nation respected the importance of woman, La Grande Sauterelle believes “that one way or another, the old chief could help her come to know herself” (57). To this end, she plans to sleep beside his grave.

After nightfall, Jack and La Grande Sauterelle use flashlights to find the chief’s grave, beside which is “that of his wife (her name was not indicated)” (57). Jack reluctantly leaves the girl and drives to a nearby campground. As he lies in bed, his thoughts turn from concern about his apparent writer’s block to the Volkswagen. The minibus was four years old when he bought it. Papers in the glove box revealed it came from Germany, having “crossed the Atlantic on a freighter, then […] travelled along the east coast” (59) as far south as Florida. It’s inscribed with patches of graffiti, including a German phrase that reads, “Die Sprache is das Haus des Seins” (59). The “Volks” has several idiosyncrasies, but its “foremost characteristic […] was that it very much disliked being hurried” (59) and protests any prodding with “suspicious sounds” (60).

The next morning, La Grande Sauterelle reports with disappointment that she feels “exactly the same as before. There’s no difference” (60). She attributes the venture’s failure, in part, to her emerging doubts about the chief’s character. His wife’s nameless grave made her question how he treated women, and she also “wondered why he liked war” (60). The night was not a complete failure, however, because she had a wonderful dream about her mother as a child, living among her people.

Jack and La Grande Sauterelle are briefly detained at the United States border. When Jack declares he is a novelist, the immigration officer asks what type of novels he writes. This question stymies Jack. He is not “able to state the main subject of his novels […] for the simple reason that, for him, writing was not a means of expression or communication, but rather a form of exploration” (63). He finally agrees with the officer’s suggestion that he writes “love” novels, and that satisfies her.

They cross the border into Detroit and drive to the Institute of Arts, where the girl wants to see a mural by Diego Rivera. The painting, which covers the four walls of the display room, depicts the process of manufacturing automobiles. Featuring drab colors and “blank-faced workers,” the predominant “effect was one of heaviness, sadness and exhaustion” (65).

After stopping at the post office to return the Toronto library book, Jack and the girl amble the streets, noting how empty they are. It is getting dark, and Jack loses his bearings, but “the girl […] could walk for an hour, turning left and right […] and always knew exactly where she was” (66). Another pedestrian approaches and, guessing they are tourists, warns them that Detroit streets are dangerous at night. The Volkswagen is on the far side of a nearby park, but as they turn onto a park pathway, the man shouts, “DO YOU WANT TO GET KILLED, YOU FOOLS? DON’T GO THROUGH THE PARK! GO AROUND IT!!!” (67).

Back on the road, Jack and La Grande Sauterelle take turns at the wheel, agreeing that the passenger will be responsible for lively conversation to keep the driver awake. The sadness of the Rivera mural reminds the girl, who is not driving, of a melancholy song she knows, and she sings a few lines. Jack responds by singing parts of another sad song, and “finally they decided to organize a competition that would be called, ‘Contest to Find the Saddest Song in the World’” (67).

The girl then expresses her fondness for the Volkswagen, which, with its kitchen and other amenities, is “[l]ike a house” (67). She has never lived in a house. Her mother was “expelled” from her people and “lost her Indian status” when she married a white man (67). The newlyweds couldn’t secure a house in the white community, which regarded the bride as Indigenous. Her parents bought a trailer, which is where La Grande Sauterelle was born.

Jack turns on the Volkswagen’s radio just as a song about America begins. Although it is commonly thought that the explorers who “discovered” America were seeking gold and spices, Jack believes otherwise. Throughout human history, he maintains, people have longed to “recover paradise on earth” (71). This is what Europeans were searching for when they found America. Their conviction that America was “their old dream come true” launched what Jack calls the “Great Dream of America,” which “had been shattered like all other dreams” (71). Occasionally, however, “travelers crossing America found traces of the old dream scattered here and there, in museums, in grottoes and canyons” (71).

They arrive in Chicago, and the girl dresses as a boy once again before they book a room at the YMCA. Jack has always liked the paintings of August Renoir. Years ago, Théo sent Jack a postcard from Chicago recommending the Renoir collection at Chicago’s Art Institute, and, in particular, a painting of a woman in a red hat. Jack and La Sauterelle find the painting at the museum. The woman’s hat is “of an incredibly bright red; and the expression on her face was infinitely gentle, and that gentleness blended with the light that pervaded the entire painting” (74). Spellbound, Jack sits and gazes blissfully at the painting for three hours while the girl tours the rest of the museum.

Looking for refreshment after leaving the Art Institute, the pair enters a hotel lobby, where a gaggle of journalists surrounds a seated figure. It is Saul Bellow, winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Literature. Although the girl has never heard of the famous writer (she notes she was only 13 in 1976), she elbows her way into Bellow’s sight because Jack wants to meet him. Charmed, but not fooled by her boyish costume, Bellow addresses the girl, and she immediately introduces Jack, who is hiding behind her. The Nobel laureate remarks that he, too, was born in Quebec, but now Chicago, his adopted hometown, is in his “blood.” After Jack volunteers that he is searching for his brother, the famous writer observes, “When you’re looking for your brother, you’re looking for everybody!” (78).

Before leaving Chicago, Jack and La Grande Sauterelle stop at the library. Jack reads an excerpt from Bellow’s novel The Adventures of Augie March, in which the narrator likens himself to “a sort of Columbus” who explores the “terra incognita that spreads out in every gaze” of every person (79). Upon hearing what Jack read, the girl says, “It’s as if Saul Bellow is telling us we’re on the right path” (80).

After driving several hours southwest, they arrive at Starved Rock State Park, situated on the banks of the Illinois River. The girl shares with Jack her detailed knowledge of the French explorers who “had left their mark on the region,” including those who built Fort St. Louis on the rock that towers over the river (80). She is, however, “more interested in the fate of a tribe that used to live around the rock: the Illinois” (81).

As evening falls, the man and the girl sit atop the rock, and she recounts the legend of Starved Rock, or “how the Illinois had been exterminated” (81). The Illinois people once lived on the rock and in the surrounding region. Because they had a “peaceful nature,” they refused to join the campaign organized by Chief Pontiac of the Ottawa nation to drive the Europeans out of the territory. When the Illinois were blamed for the assassination of Chief Pontiac, tensions between the nations escalated into war. The Illinois retreated to the peak of the rock, but their enemies “positioned themselves around the huge block of stone and waited patiently until thirst and hunger forced the Illinois to leave their refuge” (83). Those who left the rock were killed, and those who remained starved, until finally, “there was not a single survivor” (83).