The journal includes troubling entries and newspaper clippings about animal killings and arsons. “The feel of the soft, worn leather makes me cringe - feels too much like skin,” Duncan, the narrator, says. One day, Duncan idly picks from a stack of books one with a brown leather cover with no title or writing on the spine. ( See also Toronto Subway.) The subterranean storage facility at the Bay Street subway station holds an odd assortment of items left behind on buses, subways and streetcars. His father works the overnight shift at a printing plant.ĭuncan reports daily to a dead-end summer job deep beneath the city in the lost and found office of the Toronto Transit Commission. His mother works part-time at Walmart while studying at community college. He describes Acceleration as “‘What I Did on my Summer Vacation’ meets Silence of the Lambs.” Plot Synopsisĭuncan lives in an apartment complex known as the Jungle, on the edge of an urban industrial wasteland in Toronto. He has worked in libraries, bookstores, a bookbinding factory and a lost and found office.

He grew up in a working-class neighbourhood similar to the one described in Acceleration. McNamee was born and raised in Toronto before moving to Vancouver. The publicity for Graham McNamee’s fourth book included a biography written in the terse style of an entry in a police blotter. This entry was posted in English 9 by danielm-2014.

He wanted to believe it was true, he wanted the chance to redeem himself. Why did Duncan believe everything in the book? The guilt he felt from the day he couldn’t save the little girl from drowning, he felt the need to redeem himself. Why would Duncan not give up the case, why wouldn’t he just give it to the police? We learn from this book that guilt can drive us, the important thing is to make it drive us forward. Just because he knew it was right, and he had to redeem himself. This story had him go through incredible danger, but I think he would do it the same way if he had to do it over again. Despite all the obstacles, Duncan persevered, some of the obstacles not just physical but the loss of support of his friends would be emotional. Duncan faced many obstacles on the way, most of which would turn most people around. When he finds the book of the serial killer, he could have given it to the police, but his desperate need to save a life/redeem himself drives him beyond the point to do the ordinary. Duncan, absolutely struck with grief to the point where he can’t sleep cannot forgive himself for what he has done. The author, Graham Mcnamee demonstrated through Duncan that past mistakes drive people to opportunities to redeem themselves. The book Acceleration desc ribes a boy named Duncan, he felt guilty because he couldn’t save a little girl, then finds the book of a serial killer and tries to save a life again.

Acceleration by graham mcnamee