Why does Dave McGuire, the main character in Dead End File, drive a Fiat Spider? He drives one because I do. Maybe I should say, because I did and do. My thinking is that if Dave is going to be real to readers he first has to be real to me. I drove a Fiat 1200 Spider during my college years in Vermont.
The Fiat I drive today is a 1980 Spider 2000. In my mind, Dave’s is too. I know how far my right leg disappears under the dash before my butt hits the driver’s seat. I know how the wheel feels in my hands, a little sticky in the summer, and hard and smooth in winter. I had a brand new 124 Spider when I got out of college — kind of like Dustin Hoffman’s Alfa Romeo in The Graduate. It smelled like a leather shop, rich and exotic. My 1980 was twenty-six when I bought it. It has that earthy, old-leather smell a car gets when it’s spent a few rainy days or nights with the top down. I wonder who owned the car before me. Did they love it, and take pictures of it on a bright sunny day at the beach, or in a shady spot in the park? Did they take the kids to their soccer games in it? Did the dog like riding in it? Did they drive off on their honeymoon in it, like we did in ours a long time ago?
Dave McGuire is a guy who will drop everything for a friend. When his cousin calls, urgently needing help, Dave doesn’t spend two seconds worrying about the Fiat making the trip from DC to Brattleboro. He doesn’t question the quality of his tires. They are the tires he has, and that’s that. He’s not about to go on-line and find out what tires are best rated for snow and ice. He’s making the trip in the morning and he will get there.
The Fiat works itself into the story. It’s not just a prop like say a Toyota Camry or Honda Accord would be. The Fiat is different. It says the guy driving this car also knows how to fix it. He knows how to hold a flashlight in one hand and a 9mm socket wrench in the other. Amy Sinclair suggested taking her newer, more road and weather capable Volvo, instead of his. That’s out of the question for Dave. It’s his cousin making the trip necessary, and his car to go the distance.
Is this a variation on the old theme: write what you know? Yes, it probably is. I’ve driven Jeeps and pickup trucks. Dave could have made the trip riding high in an F-150. But I wouldn’t have gotten as much story out of the vehicle. Dave and Amy have to practically shout to hear one another because that’s the kind of noise you get on the highway with the top up. Near the end of the book Dave narrowly escapes a Cadillac Escalade bearing down on him by ripping through a narrow opening in a snow bank. Later he parks the Fiat under a truck trailer.
The Fiat plays an important role in Dead End File. Because of the limitations that come with its size and horsepower, it provides Dave with a unique point of view and set of challenges. He and his new girlfriend can pack only the bare essentials for the trip to Vermont. When Dave swerves into a snow-filled ditch Amy has to sit on the luggage rack to add weight to the rear so that he can rock the car out.
A writer has a huge obligation to bring the reader along, successfully navigating the twists and turns of the story. The reader shouldn’t be stranded on an esoteric island of antique auto lore, trying to figure out which way the plot went, while the author is romping around enjoying his Fiat for the pure hell of it. Rather, I want my readers to get to know Dave intimately by tinkering with the heater switch with him, and nursing the cold engine along by feathering the accelerator as delicately as he does.
Ken is a member of the National Capital Fiat Club http://www.dcfiats.org/
Till later,
Ken
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