John Billy is a novella written by David Foster Wallace. Released in 1988, it is the fifth short story in Wallace's collection Girl with Curious Hair and tells of the titular Billy recounting the life of another man.
Characters[]
- John Billy - the narrator of the tale
- Chuck Nunn, Jr. - a sheepherder whose tale John Billy recounts
- Glory Joy duBoise - Chuck Nunn's wife
- Simple Ranger - an old man who listens to John Billy's tale
- T. Rex Minogue - Chuck's rival
- V.V. Minogue - T. Rex's brother, an alcoholic poet
Plot[]
In a bar in the small Oklahoma town of Minogue, a drunken man by the name of John Billy recounts the life of one Chuck Nunn, Jr. to an old drunk named Simple Ranger. John Billy starts by recounting Chuck's football career (which led to a hall at Minogue's highschool being named after him) and his service in the Vietnam war (something he knew about due to Chuck sending him letters from 'Nam). While recounting how Chuck married his childhood sweetheart Glory Joy duBoise, the drunken duBoise stumbles into the bar.
With the help of Glory Joy, John Billy recounts how Chuck made a fortune in oil and made a large sheep farm. Unfortunately, Chuck found a rival (both financially and romantically) in the form of one T. Rex Minogue. T. Rex tried everything to get Chuck to sell his sheep farm and, when all of these failed, sent his alcoholic brother V.V. to dynamite the farm. This caused the sheep in the farm to rain down onto Minogue and made an enraged Chuck drive towards T. Rex's home. While doing so, Chuck's car was hit by a car being driven by the drunken V.V. Minogue - causing Chuck's eyes to basically pop and unhinging his mind for nearly a week.
Once Chuck's eyes had been rebuilt, it seemed as though everything returned to normal for him. Unfortunately, the crash had caused him to go slightly off-kilter - with the slightest provocation sending him into a blind rage - and the surgery to rebuild his eyes had slightly shrunken them. Thus, Chuck's eyes would pop out of the sockets with the lightest touch - which included a sneeze. This combined in one fateful day when, while eating breakfast, Chuck sneezed and launched his eyes into his food. After returning his eyes to their sockets, Chuck set off in a bulldozer to T. Rex's home - from where he still has not returned. While recounting this, David realizes that the cancer-ridden T. Rex is in the bar. Though Glory Joy assumes that T. Rex murdered her husband, T. Rex reveals that he did no such thing.
Once Chuck arrived at T. Rex's home, he set off on a tirade (almost a performative dance of pure anger) towards T. Rex and the (deceased for several months from liver damage) V.V. Once Chuck finished with this tirade, T. Rex brought him inside and hung him over his balcony to show him the Dirt that made up the substrata of Minogue's existence. With this out of the way, David hears the voice of Chuck and then begins (in what might be a drunken fugue) levitating with everyone else in the bar besides T. Rex.
See also[]
| Title | Author | Release date | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vernon God Little | D.B.C. Pierre | 2003 | A novel with somewhat similar themes |
| Works of David Foster Wallace | ||
|
Novels | ||