Customer Reviews

Montezuma's Ferrari: And Other Adventures (Last Open Road)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you read "The Last Open Road" and enjoyed it, you'll enjoy "Montezuma's Ferrari" as well. There's more adventures involving an increasingly worldly and less awkward Buddy. Although this book would stand alone, it has more meaning after first reading Open Road. They are both books that make you laugh out loud in the wrong places...like airplanes and public transportation. Unfortunately, if you're like me, the book is so entertaining it ends all too quickly. And the ending is a little abrupt. So If you're reading Burt, let us please have some more.

The sequel to "The Last Open Road" it is a must read for readers who loved it. As a stand alone book it isn't quite as good and might not be appreciated as much if read by itself. "The Last Open Road" is multi-dimensional, it is a great car tale and also a coming of age story of a young man who wants to be a sportscar mechanic and is pursuing a girlfriend at the same time. All three threads are intertwined. The book is wonderfully evocative of time and place, you can smell and feel the summer nights which he describes. In "Montezuma's Ferrari" the protagonist is a successful mechanic and married so the focus is mostly on the car tales and the descriptions are not as engrossing but the book is still wonderful.

This book picks up where "Last Open Road" leaves off - literally, so it's probably a good idea to read them in order. The trip to Mexico is a great tale and it's worth reading the book just for that. There isn't quite as much energy or pure joy in this book as the first, but it's still a hoot. I suspect that we will see a volume 3 of the tales of Buddy, Big Ed, and the rest of the crowd - natch - and I'll probably buy it and enjoy it too - no lie!

September '02 Update! BS Levy is at it again. The third edition is out - I picked up a copy yesterday (Labor Day) at Lime Rock Park and will read it this weekend. It's called "The Fabulous Trashwagon" and I can't wait!

This book is Beatufiuly written and is very entertaining. If you have not read any thing by Mr. Levy you must read this book.Like catcher in the rye? Read this book. the advertising section is beautifully done . Come on be cool.NOW BUY THIS BOOK AND ENJOY IT!

Buddy Palumbo's adventures and challenges continue in this sequel.

A character introduced in this book becomes more prominent as a narrator in later books.

I would read The Last Open Road before this, but I think anyone who enjoyed that book would enjoy this too.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Usually when you buy a continuation of a series the 2nd books and following are not as good as the first. I really enjoyed this book and if you like "The Last Open Road", I can assure you you will love this one as well.

levy has it all in this 2nd out of 4 books

life after world war two in the ike years
sports car racing in the 50's
a trip to 50's mexico
and the continuing life of the teenage buddy palumbo from passaic nj
while filling in the history of sports cars in the post war and some pre war years

great entertainment

I've just finished Montezuma's Ferrari and was plesantly surprised by it. It doesn't quite have the impact of The Last Open Road, the characters and locales now being familiar, but it's still has its own surprises, the trip to Mexico coming to mind. I'm looking forward to the other two books in the series.

If for no other reason, the Levy books are good for the early history of sports car racing in America, but they still deserve to stand on their own merits.

If you have read "The Last Open Road" and liked it, you'll like this. It has the same fun characters and starts where "Open Road" leaves off. If you haven't read "The Last Open Road" you may not enjoy this as much... but, in my opinion, "Montezuma's Ferrari" would stand on it's own. I'm looking foward to reading the next book in the series.

"Montezuma's Ferrari" is a good racing story taking place behind an irritating cloud of mistakes.

I bought "The Last Open Road" directly from Burt Levy at a sports car club gathering, and I found him to be a great guy and delightful storyteller. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book and couldn't wait to read "Montezuma's Ferrari." Unfortunately, from the third line of the book, the careless editing and/or bad typesetting turned a much-anticipated read into an exasperating exercise.

The first error to raise its head was that all the two-em dashes--and the way Levy writes, there are lots of them--were set as hyphens instead. So thoughts that should have been set off from each other were instead forced together. There are also numerous misspellings. I'm hoping that all of this might be the result of this edition--the fifth printing, from 2008--possibly being sloppily re-keyed from an earlier manuscript.

Then there are the problems that can only be attributed to the editing, or apparent lack of it (although the credits list four editors!): widespread redundancy; the verbatim repetition of several paragraphs; the use of a rare modifier twice in the book--in the same paragraph; and even narrator Palumbo's colloquialisms and interjections growing wearisome from overuse.

In spite of these issues, "Montezuma's Ferrari" managed to be entertaining. The other reviews give plenty of praise to the story line and the characters, and deservedly so. But even when you have an entertaining story, you have to pay attention to the mechanics.