Patrick deWitt's new novel Dodge City follows a draft dodger's cross-country road trip

Patrick deWitt, the author best known for the Booker-shortlisted western The Sisters Brothers, has turned to another classic American literary form in his new novel Dodge City: the road trip narrative. The book follows a college dropout in the 1960s who drives across the United States in an effort to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War.

The novel places itself within a tradition of recent road-trip fiction that has used cross-country journeys as a device for exploring personal crisis, following in the footsteps of other contemporary authors who have taken similar approaches to the form. DeWitt's version is distinguished by its setting during the Vietnam War era, giving the protagonist's flight both personal and historical stakes.

Reviewers describe Dodge City as committed simultaneously to readerly pleasure and literary artifice, noting that deWitt balances an engaging, propulsive plot with a self-aware style that draws attention to the novel's own construction as fiction. This dual commitment has been a hallmark of deWitt's work since his earlier novels established his reputation for blending genre conventions with literary experimentation.

The protagonist's journey across the country during a period of significant social upheaval allows the novel to touch on broader themes of American identity, generational conflict over the war, and the moral weight of draft evasion as a political and personal choice. DeWitt's prose style, often praised for its wit and precision, carries the narrative through its historical setting without losing its contemporary readability.

The novel continues deWitt's pattern of reinventing well-established American literary genres, following his earlier engagement with the western in The Sisters Brothers, and cements his position as a writer willing to experiment within recognisable popular forms.