Customer Reviews

The Company Car: A Novel

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am from WI and boy this author knows the people. It should be a movie - no, a mini series. They have them about Chicago, New York, Texas, California. This is the great Midwest, the farm country. The real stuff is in this book. A bit wordy for me at times and from a man's point of view but I surely enjoyed it. I found the very same reasons to laugh and to cry as I do with my neighbors, family, and friends.

Nearly 70 and from WI

Emil Czabek is coming home to celebrate with his six siblings the fiftieth anniversary of their parents. As he travels to the gala, Emil thinks back over the five decades together of Wally and Susan and prays he never ends up like them though his gut tells him he is a chip off the old block.

Emil reflects on his parents' marriage on the It's Your Marriage TV show to fleeing Chicago for the suburbs and fleeing the burbs for a Wisconsin farm. He thinks of all the failed get rich schemes that dad tried between children and how he always tried to protect his family, albeit fumbling at his efforts. Emil ponders if he is as big a bungler as his father was as he considers what to do about his aging parents and contemplates whether his spouse cheats on him between her triathlon events.

The family gathering for a special event makes for a fine drama that uses internal and external perspectives to provide the audience a deep look at an extended family especially the core parents and siblings through Emil's filter. Emil is a terrific narrator who not only sheds light on his family, but his relationship with his wife as he sees things. At times the baseball size starting team can become overwhelming to keep score of especially when spouses and grandchildren come off the bench, but readers who appreciate an insightful character study that provides an interesting fifty year viewpoint with enjoy this perceptive tale.

Harriet Klausner

Through the eyes of Emil Czabek, we embark on a journey of discovery and reminiscence of the Czabek clan. The backdrop of the story is Emil making his way back home to celebrate the fiftieth wedding anniversary of his parents with his six siblings. What starts as a celebration for the parents, quickly converts into a bit of soul searching for everyone as they remember where they came from and how the decisions of the father have made each one who they are today.

The Czabek legacy started when Wally and Susan decided to tie the knot when they found themselves getting caught up in the celebration of the world after World War II America. Americans felt, at that time, anything was possible and Wally and Susan were no different. As time carried on, they quickly found themselves raising seven children in the flourishing suburbs of Chicago. While the world had a image of life in the suburbs as being ideal, the Wally found that the live he was raising his family in wasn't far from ideal.

In an attempt to find the greener fields on the other side of the mountain, Wally uproots the family and hauls them from the heart of America to the wilderness of rural Wisconsin. Thinking he had escape the trauma of big city Chicago, he quickly finds that the grass isn't always greener and there is more complications in what appeared to be a simpler life than he ever bargained for.

As the story unfolds, we watch fifty years of family spats, broken dreams and how each member of this unique, yet familiar family copes with finding themselves in life. In the end, we find that each member of this family has their own fair share of triumph and disappointment, but that the family unit manages to survive despite it all.

A combination of a man always seeking to find a way to better himself and his family mixed with the love and feel good feelings of the "Leave to Beaver" world, this book stirs memories and entertains all in one. Hribal provides a wonderful story that amuses at times and dares to challenge are own life as we find ourselves capable of relating to one adventure or another.


Frederick A. Babb

If the author had a better editor we would have had a better book. As it is, the problem of too many characters and too many mid-chapter time jumps detract from what could have been.
Just a couple of examples: The character of the father starts to develop but gets stuck mid-book,and the ending leaves out the last 10 years of his life after the road trip with his son, the narrator...what happened? Where did he work?
To be brief the ending itself disappoints - suddenly we seem to be on a symbolic journey after hundreds of 'real life' narrative. Huh?
Too bad: it coulda been a real winner.

Good relatable characters and an okay story made this a good book. Beneath the surface, I think the author did an exceptional job of showing the changing role of men in society and the insecurities that go along with it, as well as the challenges of watching our parents grow old and coming to grips with the realities of their lives from an adult perspective (rather than that of the seeming them through the eyes of the children we were).

I think that CJ has updated very accuratly Millers Death of a Salesman. The only thing that I question is this: are people going to relate to Wally Czebek? I sure did to the point that I quite frankly wanted to quite the book but couldn"t. I think that ever sales person should be required to read this book. I had my company cars and my dreams of success. CJ has given us a historical look at life in the 60's and 70's of the company man who was thrown out to pasture to live his dreams or die with his dreams. The wake that is left is the legacy of his children and how Wally's life effected them. You owe it to yourself to read this book.

I merely liked it. (The cover helped seduce me into buying it!) I found it difficult to keep up with which generation's "Mother" was being referred to and which generation's "kids" were acting up. Just too many people for my feeble brain to keep straight. And I would like to say that I did not appreciate the review where the plastic sword thing was mentioned. When I actually came to that in the book, it didn't phase me--I took it as good-natured hyperbole. I was furious with the reviewer for spoiling the natural flow of the story for me. There are good, good things in this book--I would recommend it. But I can't give it four stars, sorry.

I too was confused about them sticking the swords up each others' butts. I actually went back and reread it. Did he mean it in a playful manner? Nothing else pointed to sexual abuse. Too weird! Besides that I really enjoyed this story.