Customer Reviews

The Age of the Bicycle

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The premise of this book is absurd, yet it works. At a certain point in time, all non-essential motor vehicles cease to function. Ambulances, fire trucks and other important vehicles still work, but the personal auto and related internal combustion vehicles are inoperable. This causes a dramatic change in the social structure. People now use bicycles as their primary mode of transportation and they do a great deal less traveling. They work and shop much closer to home and are a great deal healthier than they were in the before time. Street crime drops dramatically as large groups of people are on the streets at all times.
The story is located in Tinny Waters, Texas in the area around the Gladiola River. Due to their higher level of exercise and the lower levels of pollutants, elderly people in particular are much stronger and active than they were. This has led to new publications such as "Sex Kittens Past Seventy-Five." The elderly mother of one of the main characters is in that age category and for years she has made a good living by posing both sides of her naked area where her legs come together for the magazines.
The story also involves river fairies and there is an entirely separate society that can be accessed by riding a magic bicycle into the river. By the standards of the society with no cars, the situation in the other society is bleak. Cars still belch out pollutants and men are the "weaker sex." They wear makeup, try to catch a "good, hard-working woman" and are generally pansies. Sex crimes are women raping men, sexually harassing men in the workplace and domestic violence is woman on man.
This book is satire piled on top of satire. I picked up a copy at a math conference and read it on the plane back home. While I never laughed out loud, I found it very amusing and could not put it down until I finished it.