The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

A story of two friends and an open road

Tony Kim

Daily Egyptian Critic

The rambling style of writing by Dennis Domrzalski in the book, "I Got Stinky Feet" is a comical view on life through the eyes of two young men who decide to take a bold journey across the states on a motorcycle.

The book starts off in a depressing mood where Domrzalski, who attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale for a semester as a forestry major, talks about his run-down neighborhood in Chicago where most of his friends have turned into junkies. It quickly moves through the next chapters after his friend David, who currently lives in Carbondale, convinces him to go on a brave trip.

Without a solid goal to reach through taking this journey, the book doesn't seem to climax or progress to a main point; rather it seems to cover many ideas scattered about at once. Moving quickly from one chapter to another, Dennis and David are constantly running into new people and difficult situations they barely make out of alive. Determined to be bold and courageous, the two men try their best not to avoid dangerous situations by walking right into them instead.

When I first opened this book and read through the first few chapters, I was immediately hooked because of how much I could relate to it. As Domrzalski started talking about fallen friendships and a need to get away from his depressing surroundings in the Chicago area I could only feel sympathetic. What I really related to was how he described the first part of the trip when he rode down to Carbondale from Chicago. He was quite descriptive of the scenery and I could easily picture all those six-hour drives from home to school.

I have to admit, though, I was quite bored when Domrzalski would ramble on and on about something by listing a bunch of things about it when he could have simply gotten to the point in one sentence. This was truly a weakness to the book because it didn't seem to make it more clever. It felt like he was using a lot of fill-in material. I found myself skipping over most of these overly descriptive paragraphs. If it weren't for the short three-page chapters, I probably would have lost interest and not even have finished it. But don't take my word for it; I have the attention span of a fly.

I'm the type of person who gets bored of reading about someone's journey somewhere in the same way you'd probably have no interest in watching someone's vacation slides. That's why I appreciated how Domrzalski expanded the imagination by overly exaggerating the things that happened to them throughout their trip.

I liked the fact that the book moved quickly and the little lessons that are learned in each chapter are definitely enlightening. It was easy to move along the book with the addition of the pencil-style illustrations by Dan Florentine giving the book sort of a surrealistic feel. Admit it, you still like books with pictures. We all do.

"I Got Stinky Feet," carries a cynical and comical mood, but I didn't catch myself laughing out loud. Then again I rarely laugh out loud when I'm reading.

Tony Kim is a junior in journalism, and can be reached at moop1200@hotmail.com His views do not necessarily reflect the Daily Egyptian.

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