New Yorker on a roll: Another fine debut story

Another new writer (to most readers I guess) introduced this week in The New Yorker - I've criticized the mag's fiction selections for some time and I have to say they're now on a roll - which continues with the publication of a very intriguing and promising story by Victor Lodato, "Jack July." OK on one level it's yet another day-in-the-life-of-an-American-loser story, in this case a one-day span entirely within the desultory and cranked consciousness of a 20-something meth addict walking the blazing hot streets of Tuscon, coming down (to a degree) from a fix. Jack, looking for relief and solace, both physical and emotional, visits variously a fast-food place where he's turned away, his ex-girlfriend in her trailer - she threatens to call the cops, tosses a glass of water at him, his mostly estranged mother - he crawls through the window of his vanished sister's bedroom - very slight echo of Salinger here - and is confronted by his mother's new "roommate," who chastises Jack for the pain he's caused his mother over the years. At last, he returns to his very temporary home, an apt shared with a fellow meth-addict, a gay Mexican guy who came onto Jack in a restaurant men's room. Yes, very dark stuff, but much leavened by Lodato's terrific writing: he closely follows the heaving confusion of the addicted brain, with some at times very funny misperceptions (he has no idea what the restaurant greeter is saying to him - thinks somehow she's asking if he needs to "shit or pee" - very odd, and just on this side of credible), at other times with a feeling of authenticity - don't know where Lodato gets his info but he convincingly gives us access to a consciousness of an outsider. I also credit Lodato for giving this potentially wandering and flat narrative a real shape and purpose: over the course of the day, we learn, through Jack's reflections, about the deepest trauma of his life - the day when a vicious dog attacked his sister, and his lingering guilt; this plot element feels shoe-horned in a bit but it's rare to see a (presumably) young writer who's willing to push the story beyond its, or his, obvious strengths and pay homage to plot and character, the elements, let's face it, that readers like the most. All in all, a promising first look at a writer who I hope will give us much more.