Most of you probably wouldn’t aspire to be a dishwasher as Pete Jordan is or think of it as a very promising career and he would agree with you. Dishwasher is about a man’s quest to wash dishes in all fifty states. It starts out in Vermont which is Pete Jordan’s twenty-third state he’s checked off his list so far. Throughout the first few pages you really get a sense of his personality. Pete is just a laidback back guy who goes with flow. He tends to drift on the edges of thing just observing and keeping his opinions to himself unless asked. He leads a rather simple life traveling the country going from one state to another booking jobs at restaurants or events washing dishes. When he gets tired of his job, the people, weather, or just gets the feeling its time to move on he packs up checking another state off his list and moving on to a new one , no strings attached. He has always had a love for maps and traveling; he says his time “was spent riding busses. One thing I’d inherited from my dad was his passion for maps” (14). When he was a child he would buy maps and study them dreaming on day he could visit all of those places. So although Pete may not have the most extravagant of all careers I think it is one that really suits him and satisfies his desires of traveling the US while still making a living. This is something many of us are able to accomplish with our careers.
Pete tells us more about his childhood and some of the events that lead him to become a dishwasher. As a child Pete grew up in San Francisco in a poor family with unstable friends. Pete says “I learned very early on how one could start out poor; work hard all his life—and still end up poor. Since I was going to start out poor and most likely end up poor, I decided not to waste time in between” (11, 12). This was the case with his father who was your dedicated model employee who instead being rewarded, was surpassed by the “bullshitters” and “backstabbers” as Pete refers to them as. This really portrays Pete’s pessimistic view of life and the work world. This negative view is one main reason which led him to not strive for much in his life and instead take an easier wrought. Dishwasher gives a good perspective of the world through the eyes of someone with many different goals and views than many of us.
Jordan, Pete. Dishwasher : One Man's Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States. New York: HarperPerennial, 2007.
5 comments:
This seems like a pretty funny book. When I think of a biography or an autobiography I usually think of someone famous, like a president. This book on the otherhand is about a regular guy who is fulfilling his dream. This sounds like a very interesting book, I can't wait to read about it more!
It sounds like Pete lives a really unusual and different life, and I agree with him that living in many different places would be fun to do. However, I can't imagine moving quite as much as he seems to--this would make it hard to make and keep friends or develop a sense of belonging in any one place. I wonder if Pete has trouble with these things in his life. On the other hand, Pete sounds like a bit of a social outcast, and maybe he doesn't mind this.
Dishwasher actually sounds like a funny book with a dark undertone. It starts out fairly humourous that a man has a goal of being a dishwasher in all fifty states, but then when you realize he isn't going to try to suceeed because he knows he won't, it is sad. I agree with Annie that I like that the book is about/written by a normal man. On a side note, Pete's love of maps reminds me a lot of my dad. He loves looking at maps and planning where to go. The book sounds entertaining and like something I would enjoy reading.
I want to read this book. Pete sounds like a sweet drifter, just going with the flow. That sounds like it would be a semi-fun life. Where you'd see a lot of places and meet a lot of people, but also, you're a dishwasher, and you don't get to live luxuriously. This sounds like his life would be half fun and half hard.
So many people would love to just not worry about their responsibilities and do what they love and it seems Pete alomst has that. It would be really nice to not have to worry about others and travel all across the country but its usually not that easy. I'd like to read this book to see how he deals with the outcast status he has placed himself in and to learn more about how he developed the pessemistic feelings he has.
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