The Last Open Road (The Last Open Road) [Hardcover]

Burt Levy (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Cartoonish coming-of-ager: a year in the life of a bunch of lovable New Jersey palookas on the upper-crusty open-road car- race circuit. It's 1952, and Buddy Palumbo, just 19, may not be the most gifted mechanic to hang around Old Man Finzio's Sinclair gas station, but he can't stay away. Turning down his father's offer of a union job in a chemical factory, Buddy is lured into the grease-pit by glimpses of Finzio's curvaceous daughter Julie and by the macho auto-repair skills of ex-Marine Butch Bohunk. When Bohunk, in a drunken rage over the shrewish Mean Marlene, drives his battered Ford into a highway support somewhere outside Passaic, Palumbo becomes Finzio's head mechanic and has to maintain the creamy white Jaguar XK120 roadster of tough-talking scrap dealer Big Ed Baumstein. A problem with the Jag's touchy carburetor sends Palumbo to a Manhattan dealership, where he learns the sleazy tricks of the import luxury car trade from pompous owner Colin St. John and shifty sidekick Barry Spline. From there it's a short hop to the world of open-road sport-car racing (on make-shift courses laid out on rural roads) in Bridgehampton. Big Ed is snubbed by upper-class blue bloods, while Palumbo is smitten with the skin-deep charms of Sally Enderle, girlfriend of wealthy cad Creighton Pendleton. Sports journalist Levy, a former semi-pro race-car driver, matches the street-smart savvy and honest labors of Palumbo and Big Ed against a predictable pack of rich snobs, with mostly predictable results, varying the formula only at the end, when an unforseen mishap at Watkins Glen ends open-road racing forever. Big Ed and Palumbo return to the sizzling asphalt of Passaic, where Palumbo wonders whether he'll ever race again. Funny high-octane fuel for fans of the comic nostalgia tales of humorist Jean Shepherd; crowded equally with typecast characters and vivid racing scenes. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 354 pages
• Publisher: Think Fast Ink Llc; Revised edition (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 096421072X
• ISBN-13: 978-0964210721
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #385,601 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this book, May 11, 2005

By 

Mercedes Lackey "author" (Claremore, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last Open Road (The Last Open Road) (Hardcover)

I am a complete fan of this book; we kept it in the car and I read it aloud to my husband on long cross-country drives. Cartoonish? I wouldn't say so, unless you feel that the history of early road racing is cartoonish. We found the depictions to be a wonderful time capsule that made us wish we could go back and experience some of that for ourselves.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for any gearhead... and his/her spouse, December 28, 1999

By 

Eric Kroth (Delmar, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Open Road (Hardcover)

The Last Open Road, by B.S. Levy is one of the most entertaining and true to life books ever written. If you have ever raced, or just hung out with racers, you'll recognize about every character in the book. If you've ever turned a wrench (or tried to) on a car, you'll find yourself reliving those experiences over and over. You'll also find yourself wanting to travel to the places mentioned in the book. The story is also a glimpse into a time gone by. According to everyone I've talked with at my club (what the S.C.M.A. becomes twenty years later) that's really how it used to be. Do yourself a favor - buy the book, already. I can also recommend Montezuma's Ferrari, recently published.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Auto racing nirvana, February 25, 2005

By 

C. R. Ramsey Potts (West Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last Open Road (The Last Open Road) (Hardcover)

If you are the kind of person who is even considering the purchase of this book, then you are exactly the kind of person who will get enormous rewards from reading the entire B.S. Levy trilogy about mechanic Buddy Palumbo. I have purchased many copies of this book for my "car buddies" and even their wives have commented to me about how their men could not the put book down once they started. B.S. has finally written the great american "autosport" novel. Buy this book!