Gunnar is one odd bloke

         Gunnar Kaufman: affectionate son and brother, gang member, basketball star, poet, messiah, how can one person embody so many personas? This is one character that it is almost impossible not to like throughout the novel, even after he inadvertently convinces hundreds of people to commit suicide and shows no remorse for doing so. But his voice, with varying tones from "pardon me old bean" to "whadda sunovabitch"who can switch from jocular to intellectual to "hood" and back again four times in one sentence, is entrancing. I do indeed believe that this voice is ultimately what leads him to be the radical revolutionary figure that he is in the final chapter. Because this guy really just does not think like your everyday person on the street.

         I mean first of all, he was raised by some stunningly unique characters: a mother who can stuff a condom up her nose at the dinner table and say "Ta-da!" (one of the more staying anecdotes) and a father who may be a little like Bledsoe in that he seems ashamed that he is black, and therefore spends his days arresting other black people and palling with the white officers, imitating their tactics of beating young black men without cause. And perhaps this upbringing, from his unique role in Santa Monica environment to a temporarily solitary existence in Hillside before befriending the ultimate hipster, Mr. Nicholas Scoby, and once again becoming an idol. Something about Gunnar, (and I suspect that it had something to do with the way he talked) drew everyone to him. Now, unlike most teenage males who with this amount of attention would have an ego big enough to have a house of its own, Gunnar seems almost ashamed of his popularity, like he did not think he deserved it. In class someone brought up the idea that this was because he did not have to work at basketball like he did for poetry: his actual passion. But I think Gunnar would have been known widely even without his mad hops. And I think that one of the reasons he was so uncomfortable with all of the constant attention on him was for the reason he freely admitted: "I really don't give a fuck." Sure, he has opinions, but most of them concern only his own feelings and actions. For a prophet-messiah-black Jesus-like character he sure is self absorbed. But again, that is part of his appeal. He doesn't directly tell anyone to do anything, he's merely spit-balling ideas for himself.

        One part of the novel that sort of epitomized Gunnar's facetious and lovable weirdness for me was that he actually accepted Yoshiko into his life. I seriously thought Psycho Loco was completely kidding in an initiation/older brother "We need to get you laid" kind of way, and then whaddaya know, he has gone and actually ordered and paid for a human being on the black market. Now of course we expect Gunnar to refuse her because he's not in love with her, it's immoral, blah blah blah. Or maybe he'll accept her, but never really talk to her and have her stay in the background. But once again he utterly stunned me when he falls for this "Hot Mama-San of the Orient" who reminds him of his mother and has an odd fascination with his butt.

      But the more weirdness that falls out of this guy's words and actions, the more I love him as character. He has a charisma that kind of makes him irresistibly likeable, and I think this is what leads him to his final uprising. Or is it a downfall? I mean, he probably is going to die...
Yes, I am going to go with downfall. Because his final speech left me with a lot of questions, and if I were black I'm not sure I'd be willing to just down some suspicious grape Kool-Aid without asking any further questions. (More on this later).