Let the Dog Drive [Mass Market Paperback]

David Bowman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1995

A New York Times Notable Book, this madcap odyssey tells of a hitchhiker of strange origin and a frenetic red-headed Detroit housewife as they experience it all--from tainted hallucinatory cacti in Texas to gunplay with Iranian terrorists in Coney Island. A freewheeling tale with sharp-edged wit and brilliantly chaotic style. Author readings.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bowman won NYU's Bobst Emerging Writers Award for this first novel about a young man's odyssey across a postmodern American landscape.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"You'd think nothing would live up to this title, but the book, being more generous as well as witty, more than tops it...incandescent."

-The New Yorker, --This text refers to the Unknown Binding edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); First Edition edition (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140237240
• ISBN-13: 978-0140237245
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,454,758 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars literate and foolish, January 17, 2001

By 

L Metz (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Let the Dog Drive (Mass Market Paperback)

This book was one of my first adolescent literary loves. It was among the first that began my lensding library of contemporary fiction. As such, I have purchased it about five times. Each time that it comes back, I read it again. It is fresh and touching each time as it was the first. In Sylvia, I found a literary woman who was worth idolizing. She is by no means perfect, but it is by that token that one cannot help but love her. Not love her a little; rather, she challenges you to not fall madly and passionately in love with her. When you do, she won't give you another thought. She was a woman both self-absorbed and extroverted. Needless to say that I fell in love with her. She is a woman ruled by the men in her life, but fixed by a female literary force, both powerful and meek. In contrast, Orange Boy is ruled by women, powerful ones who are destructive when brought together. The conflicts of male and female energy, of intellectual and sexual concerns and of family versus personal responsibilities are presented in "Drive" like nowhere else that I have yet to find. This book is as brilliant as it was the first time that I read it. Thank you to Bowman for his intimacy with beauty.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A sort of funny disappointment, July 23, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Washington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Let the Dog Drive (Mass Market Paperback)

David Bowman's "Let the Dog Drive," while frequently funny, seems to suffer from a case of wackiness for wackiness' sake, a sort of look-how-crazy-I-am voice that leads us through various scenes of senseless violence and college bull session-like ruminations on such highbrow fare as Emily Dickinson. Which is a shame, since there's a lot of good material here, hiding just behind the screen of self-conscious hilarity. The scene that lends the book its title hints at potential the rest of the story never quite lives up to, leaving us to grow tired of the orange motif, the limp terrorism subplot, and various instances where characters are shot or beat up without managing to elicit any sympathy from the reader. When a suposedly focal character dies and you find yourself not particularly caring and in fact being *annoyed* that the other characters are obsessed with her, you know this story is in trouble.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars prop this one on your steering wheel and go, November 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Let the Dog Drive (Mass Market Paperback)

Anyone who has propped a book on the steering wheel for a little reading at 65 mph can appreciate this book. Anyone who hasn't shouldn't write book reviews. Anyone incensed with the "crash dummies" or concerned with experimentation using animals can appreciate the dark satire of this book. Anyone who had juvenile fantasies about a redhead can appreciate the strange love story within this book. Anyone who has hitchhiked can relate to this book.

For me, all of the above. I loved this book.