Caterwauler

Caterwauler is a fictional diary of a guy working at a sex shop. It is a day-to-day first person account of what goes on at a porn store, in the voice of an angry young man. It is a dark, yet humorous account of retail. The reader follows Wes St. John (an insecure loser trying to reclaim his innocence) through his two month employment at a sex shop in the form of his daily entries. On the graveyard shift, he comes to grips with his problems with love, life, sex, and the public, writing down whatever comes to mind at three in the morning. With a history of failed jobs and relationships, he has become disgusted by sex, wary of management, and unsure about how to interact with the general public. He meets a pretty co-worker named Jodi Rideout. Surrounded by prostitutes, perverts, drug-addicts, drunks, a wide selection of erotica, and a disease-ridden arcade that he cleans every night, Wes labors over what would happen if he and Jodi became involved.

Dissecting in these entries everything from sex, squirrels, and the universe, amidst a backdrop of pornography and the local beaches, Wes begins to understand where he has gone wrong. But when the customers become increasingly violent, his drugged-out ex-girlfriend shows up, and his supervisor keeps handing out warnings, he begins to lose his grasp on reality. Jodi and the promise of a romantic love slip further away. The reader follows him through angst-filled emotional breakdowns, and his vague realization that amidst a world of sex and lust, the only thing that can save him is, well, love.

As the story begins, Wes is going through training and writing down everything he says and has said to him by his supervisor and the customers coming in to see where he goes wrong with day to day social interactions. He eventually opens up to the clientele and, more importantly, opens up to Jodi. Both of them frequent the local beaches to enjoy the change of scenery, and get wasted. These entries are followed by passages of introspection, delving into why Wes feels it would be wrong to get involved with anyone sexually. He meets a homeless man (Barnadine) who has chosen the dumpster behind the store as refuge. During this time, Wes finds his true voice and understands why he is unique and his confidence, for the moment, is restored in humanity and himself. He sees how laughable it is that someone should look so hard for meaning while sitting behind a counter at a sex shop. Too bad it doesn’t last.

Is the world better off without Wes St. John? He’d say, Yeah.