The Sink: The Last Days of Driving

The Sink is a satire on driving and behavior. It mocks today’s drivers, who have made bad driving a universal norm. It provides a satirical perspective on a car culture gone badly wrong.

The book’s premise is that almost no drivers are competent, and that most of them practice daily for a collision. Recounted in the first person by a driving instructor, this book is 70% dialogue, all meat and bone, no flab. As in the Icelandic sagas, characters reveal themselves by what they say and do.

The story, set in 2010, pits a small element of the roadway righteous against the reckless, antisocial and inept majority. Drawing from his own experience as a driving instructor, the author makes it plain that bad driving (antisocial driving) is the norm, and that anyone attempting to set standards is mercilessly punished. So the righteous aim to topple the car culture. In the process, they throw society into a full-scale revolution. As in all revolutions, principle is carried to ruthless extremes.

The author takes pains to place the driving culture in the context of the wider culture that spawned it, and also to relate it to human nature and popular culture, while hinting that the gods may bear the ultimate responsibility. This book is a dark commentary on human failure and the conditions of existence.

But the Sink is also a book with a mission. It probes the minds of drivers to show how empty they are, at least as far as driving is concerned. This is an outsider’s view of our driving. Without being either science fiction or fantasy, the book has elements of both. Through its insights into typical driver mindsets, the book convincingly portrays drivers as being in the behavioral sink, and light-years away from their own self-images. This is a thought-provoking literary novel, a recognized road-safety tool, and world-class entertainment all in one.

The book points the way to a new driver education. One that focuses not on superior skill in handling a vehicle, but on preparing drivers for their obligations as participants in the social space of the road. Drivers would need to have insights into rights, obligations, and ethics.

Alternatively, as the road manners of the world spiral down into the behavioral drain, mindless driving and the terrible carnage it brings will continue to plague us.