Willoughby? Whatever it is, it comes with sunlight and serenity and is a part. Gart Williams, who climbed on a world that went by too fast, it's a place around the bend where he could jump off. " Willoughby? Maybe it's wishful thinking nestled in a hidden part of a man's mind, or maybe it's the last stop in the vast design of things - or perhaps, for a man like Mr. Th ings come to a head one day at work when the phones won't stop ringing, his indigestion swells, and he hallucinates his boss' face - tw o of them, one saying "Push push push, Williams" and the other, "Get with it, boy!" - in the mirror. Next time, he tells himself, he's going to get off the train. He continues to visit the strange town of Willough by during his evening commute.Īnd each time it pulls him into it a little more. Pressures at work continue to mount, and his alienation grows. Point is, rightly or wrongly, Ga rt is one unhappy dude who is either unwilling or incapable of "just going along with it" anymore. ( This is all pre-hippies, of course.) And we're given the sense that this self-pitying side of Gart makes regular appearances in their marriage. I t's a theme explored in tons of other places, of course, just those popped into mind.) But of course she has a point - wha t Gart yearns for is unrealistic: freedom from the demands of his job, his marriage, even his century. Marquand's Point of No Return, or read Barbara Ehrenreich's The Hearts of Men. (For some contemporary context of this Post WW2 Commuter Man trapped in a deceptively-affluent hamster wheel of his own (with the help of bank loans and peer pressure) devise, see the virtually-forgotten-but-once-zeitgeist yJohn P. Jane is the henpeckish terror the episode requires her to be. Jane is all high society heels and Tiger Wife spiels, and when Gart tells her about his dream of leaving it all beh ind for a "dream of a town" like Willough by, she pretends to listen for awhile and then verbally slaps him upside the head. The wife of one of Gart's fellow ad execs called to tell her about Gart's outburst at the meeting.
We see the broader picture of Gart's world-weariness when he goes home and - after pouring himself a st iff drink to get "quietly plastered" - is given a tongue-lashing by Jane, his wife. Never mind that they consider the Stephen Foster tunes the local band is playing to be 'new hits, ' the appeal of the sleepy little hamlet is strong for the world-weary Williams."
It 's nostalgia spread out on the earth and allowed to grow into a small community where young boys grab fishing poles, ladies walk through the park on their way to buy a few groceries, and the men make a living by sitting on front porches professionally. "On the surface, the town is an ice cold lemonade memory of a time that never really existed.
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