The Night Auditor
Jecemïs
Joie
Reviewed by Cynthia Murphy
Jecemïs Joie’s novella, The Night
Auditor, is a solid first effort. It
tells the story of young man working the
graveyard shift in various New
York City hotels. A night auditor is
the late-night desk clerk in a hotel. In
addition to the standard desk clerk duties, he also has some light
accounting
responsibilities. There is a lot of free
time with this job.
The work is semi-autobiographical, which
results in a well-defined narrator, Jecemïs. Throughout the novella, Jecemïs drifts along with his job and tiny
circle of acquantinces. He is frequently
stuck in a rut, both in his work and his relationships.
Joie has created a narrator that is both
intriguing and somewhat mundane. It
seems like there is more than meets the eye with Jecemïs , but like most twenty-somethings, he
is busy defining himself. The narrator
has a definite pattern of behavior. He breaks out of a rut, then
quickly falls
into a new one. This
occasionally makes the action
predictable, but Joie provides several twists that keep things
interesting.
There is also good use of darkness in The Night Auditor. Jecemïs is
surrounded by darkness both literally and figuratively.
He lives most of his life in the dark. His
job doesn’t begin until 11:00 p.m., and he goes home
when the sun is rising. Jecemïs also spends most of the daylight hours asleep. He doesn’t really join the world until the
late afternoon or early evening. The
setting is also dark. Each hotel that Jecemïs works at is shabby and dingy. Most
are in need of major repairs.
On a figurative level, there is an element
of darkness in Jecemïs’s
relationship with his girlfriend, Sally.
Part of Sally’s personality seems to be shrouded in secrecy. Jecemïs doesn’t really know or
understand her. She
fights her own battle with mental
illness, but she tells Jecemïs
very little about it until it is necessary.
She also has her own demons involving sex and prescription drugs. Jecemïs discovers
these demons after Sally accidentally overdoses. The
dark mood swings for both Sally and Jecemïs
represent another element of figurative
darkness.
The overall look is interesting. The cover
is simple and reminiscent of a
literary magazine. Its hand-drawn black
and white images are striking. The look
truly fits the novella. Another impressive
stylistic element occurs at the beginning of each chapter.
Joie has included three phrases at the start
of the chapter. These phrases appear
above the chapter number. Each one
points out a specific incident or theme for the chapter.
This thread of phrases ties all the chapters
together.
This
is a character-driven novella. The plot is
sparse, but well-constructed. Each action
occurs for a reason. Joie has not wasted
any effort
in his
work. His references to Henry
Miller are well-placed. Miller’s
influence is evident in Joie’s writing style.
The Night Auditor could be the
start of a promising literary career.