54 pages • 1 hour read
Matt RichtelA Deadly Wandering
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaChapters 44-47Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 44 Summary: “Reggie”
In September 2009, Reggie travels to Washington, DC, for the inaugural Distracted Driving Summit, organized by Ray LaHood, the Secretary of Transportation. Reggie’s story makes a big impact on LaHood. At the end of the summit, President Obama signs an order forbidding federal employees from texting and driving during work hours.
Reggie finishes his essay on Les Misérables, in which he writes about redemption, the power of everyone to change, and resisting “seeking profit or praise from redemptive efforts” (325).
Reggie appears on an Oprah segment about distracted driving, and though his sentence is over, he accepts many more appearance invitations, each time displaying what people characterize as “inescapable sincerity” (326).
In June, Reggie speaks to a roomful of rookies entering the NBA. As he recounts the accident, he cries, and they applaud when his talk ends. One former player says, “as his story comes out, you realize that, every time, he is reliving it” (326).
Chapter 45 Summary: “Redemption”
Reggie speaks to an auditorium filled with high school students. He tells them the whole story, from the morning of the accident up to his sentencing hearing and his first night in jail. He makes it clear that he decided to text and drive, and that he wishes he could take it back. One student afterward admits that he’s texted while driving and vows not to again.
Reggie continues to give talks to sports teams and high schools. Linton later says, “I have never seen anybody try to redeem themselves as much as Reggie Shaw. Period. End of story”; and Judge Willmore adds, “He’s done more to effect change than anyone I’ve ever seen.” (330-31). Secretary LaHood says he’s a hero.
Chapter 46 Summary: “Reggie’s Brain”
In April 2013, Richtel drives with Reggie to the University of Utah’s neuroimaging center to answer a question: Is Reggie’s brain different from everyone else’s? Is he predisposed to text and drive? Ahead of them, when a truck loses a few folding chairs it’s carrying, Reggie swerves to avoid them. Richtel notes that Reggie’s focus saved them from a potentially disastrous wreck.
The experiments at the center predictably show that Reggie’s focus suffers when trying to multitask. A baseline test where Reggie has to solve a number of complex problems puts him in the top 25% of people; meaning he has an above-average ability to focus. The tests demonstrate that everyone has a point where their attention overloads, no matter how good they are at focusing.
Chapter 47 Summary: “Terryl”
Terryl has rebounded from tragedy and horror of her childhood. Her children continue to win academic competitions, and her son Taylor graduates from high school two years early as valedictorian. He still wants to become a neurosurgeon. Terryl’s eldest daughter Jayme will embark on her own mission in the Philippines. She also wants to go to medical school. Her younger girls spend the summer doing opera and musicals.
Terryl’s mother refuses to confront her past. She is upset that Terryl is revealing personal childhood stories for this book. But as Terryl says: “I’m sick and tired of shoving things under the carpet” (343). Terryl’s brother Michael believes that Danny’s abuse had one upside: It made them stronger.
When Jayme supports a friend who comes out as gay, Terryl is proud of her daughter, and proud that she has passed on a “deep moral authority” (344) to her.
Chapters 44-47 Analysis
These chapters focus on the ways people rebound from tragedy and the lessons they can learn from their past experiences. Both Reggie and Terryl emerge in these chapters as truth-tellers—a quality Richtel suggests is a necessary aspect of rebounding from tragedy. Reggie summarizes what he now understands in his essay about Les Misérables he writes for the judge as part of his sentence:
But through this terrible situation that I have created, I have received a gift that I have the ability to affect a lot of people’s lives. I can make a promise to myself that I will do whatever it takes to try and help people by making sure that nobody makes the same mistake that I did (325).
Terryl is committed to being honest and open about her past, even in the face of her mother’s wish that none of the past be known:
Here we are, years later, years later, and the idea is, let’s not let anybody know—let’s pretend we did not have secrets destroy parts of our life. Yes, yes, I did. My mother’s idea is we don’t talk about things because we don’t want anybody to know. I get really angry (342-43).
The book projects Terryl’s attitude into the future, as an aside about Terryl’s daughter’s acceptance of her gay friend gives us a sense that Terryl has transcended the morality of institutional religion:
Terryl seemed to have developed, and passed on, a deep moral authority, despite her tragic childhood, or maybe because of it, that seemed to have more depth and breadth than the institutions and conventional leanings around her (344).
