Based in San Diego, his brief life journey takes him to Milwaukee, Tijuana and San Francisco for various reasons. What is common to each one of them is an alcohol and drug fueled disdain for nearly everyone he encounters. In part, the reason for his misanthropic behavior stem from being raised by a substance dependent mother and a series of abusive live in boyfriends. Unfortunately, this revelation does not engender any sympathy for him as he recklessly careens through his life fighting his friends and demeaning women.
The image that Olsen presents of himself is odious, which is true about nearly everyone else in the book. When one of his friends, an overweight girl for whom he says he has feelings, comes on to him, he states, “There’s a weight limit for this ride”. This is his general attitude toward all of his friends. What keeps a reader’s interest is that the story unfolds with anticipated horror of watching an accident about to happen. The dialog does have some sticking points like the overuse of the word “random” and using “blah, blah, blah” to substitute for dialog. In addition, the frequency of spelling errors, like “heroine” to mean “heroin”, show the book to be in dire need of an editor.
Olsen does speak highly of his grandparents, who helped him out of his homelessness and dead end job. His grandparents and his disabled friend, Norman, are the only people mentioned that he has any positive feelings toward. This does lend a bit of humanity to the story but it is overwhelmed with his treatment of everyone else. In the brief afterward, Olsen thanks Norman for giving him the idea and the impetus to write this book. It was a fine gesture that he found the drive and the discipline to answer that request. However, on reading the story, one might ask, “What was the point?”
DIRTBALL: THE DIARIES OF A WORTHLESS SOMEBODY is the story of a young man making his way through a society that appears ready to discard him. Unfortunately, the story turns from picaresque to absurd rather quickly as the requisite humor for this type of work is replaced with insults and punches.
Reviewed by Ed Bennett for IndieReader.