"Midnights is both a comedy of errors and an affectionate portrait
of small-town police, those beleaguered souls charged with the task
of keeping their neighbors in line....A reminder that those
assigned to protect are often vulnerable and quietly heroic."-Time
Funny, touching, revealing, here is the view from a rookie cop's
patrol car, during midnight shifts, in a (mostly) peaceful town.
With a rich cast of characters, this is a classic memoir of the
fear, surprises, excitement, embarrassment that comes with a
protecting and serving a small community. "When I was twenty-three
years old, five months out of college, with a degree in music, and
without any idea of what to do with myself, I took a job as a
policeman in Wellfleet, Massachusetts," so writes Alec Wilkinson.
"Music, huh?" the police chief said during the job interview.
"That'll be a big help." Wilkinson's main qualification was
familiarity with the town of 2,000 people from summers there
growing up. Committing himself to a year wearing a uniform and
carrying a gun, and with no training, Wilkinson was sent out to
keep the peace, hoping nothing would happen. There are high-speed
chases and stopping drunk drivers, one of whom tries to set
Wilkinson's hair on fire. There are domestic squabbles. "The first
six months were murder for me," Wilkinson's partner confides on his
first night. "After that, when I found out the people I thought
were my friends weren't really my friends, I felt better off."
There is an attempted bank robbery. The teller convinces the robber
that his haul ($300) is too much to carry around in cash. The
robber is still listening to investment options when the police
arrive. Throughout there are conversations with his eight fellow
officers who Wilkinson comes to respect and admire. "Nobody ever
calls you when they're behaving themselves," one admits. "As a
rule, you always get called when people are at their worst. It's
sad. It depresses me." The job is often thankless. "Right now I
work on the police force," another officer says, "my wife stamps
cans in the supermarket, and she makes more money than I do." This
is experiential journalism at its most poignant and
entertaining-and it launched the career of Alec Wilkinson: writer,
interviewer, essayist, and author. This is for any reader looking
for insight into the real lives of police officers, outside of
large cities, across America. It is also for anyone looking for a
marvelously engaging read. Midnights is part of Godine's Nonpareil
imprint: celebrating the joy of discovery with books bound to be
classics.
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