Dodge City by Patrick deWitt review - a wild draft-dodging road trip

Patrick deWitt’s Dodge City, his follow-up to the 2011 Booker-shortlisted The Sisters Brothers, revisits the road novel with a distinctly 1960s setting and a focus on youth rather than midlife crisis. The story begins when Leland “Lee” Clarke receives his draft notice to be sent to Vietnam, after being expelled from UCLA for assaulting a fellow student, a wealthy hippie who looks down on him. The violence costs him his deferment, but Lee doesn’t frame it as conscientious objection; he simply wants to dodge, heading to Canada. He plans an L-shaped trip from Los Angeles to New Jersey to say goodbye to family members in Concrete, Montana, and Manhattan, while avoiding his brother Harry in Minnesota.