Customer Reviews

Tepper Isn't Going Out: A Novel

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A humorously acerbic novel that is as delicious as a "nice" whitefish. The critics have made a big tsimmis about this book -- rightly so. If you have your car in a space that is GFT, good for tomorrow, this book is worth leaving the space to purchase and read. Murray Tepper loves to park his car in Manhattan. He knows all the parking rules; he enjoys sitting in his parked car and signaling to other drivers that is not 'going out' of the space. Tepper's behavior sometimes irritates the people who covet his spot. Murray has perfected a flick of his hand, not too aggressive, to tell people he isn't moving. It is the same finger wag used by the city's vindictive mayor in a barricaded City Hall to admonish his critics. Tepper irritates the mayor, Frank Ducavelli (read as RUDY), known in tabloid headlines as Il Duce-who sees Murray Tepper as a harbinger of what His Honor always calls "the forces of disorder." Rudy, I mean Ducavelli has enforced an arcane rule that people cannot hail a taxi from the street, but must hail it from the sidewalk. He has also attempted to enforce a dress code for city parks. TRILLIN captures NYC so well, that it is hard to believe that the book is fiction. The book is filled with those observant nuggets, like food workers who wear gloves, but the gloves are dirty; or the cast of political entrepreneurs who take advantage of issues to promote their causes. After a story on Tepper in the post-modern East Village "Rag" weekly, fellow New Yorkers become aware of Tepper, a direct mail list maven. Counter men from Russ and Daughters and even Upper East-Siders come to sit and chat with Tepper in his car. This is the book that should be selected as the citywide read in 2002.

Murray Tepper is one of the most likeable characters that I've ever come across in a novel. As I was reading this sunny satire by New Yorker Calvin Trillin, I kept smiling to myself and thinking that I wished I could meet Tepper and sit with him in the front seat of his 'legally parked' dark blue Chevy Malibu. I had to keep reminding myself that 'Tepper Isn't Going Out' is fiction - it read like a 'parking' memoir. Parking is a sport in Manhattan, and Murray is a pro.

Murray sits in his Malibu late in the day, reading his Post and perfecting his hand flicks that he gives to would-be parkers who ask him if he's going out. One thing leads to another, and Murray winds up being the parking philosopher with a line of people waiting to join him in his car. Next he ends up being declared an 'attractive nuisance' by City Attorney Victor 'Yesboss' Hessbaugh under a 1911 statute. It seems Mayor 'Il Duce' Ducavelli has decided that Tepper has become one of the 'forces of disorder' that are threatening the City. Tepper gets his day in court, represented by ACLU lawyers who have a shopping cart stuffed full of documents. I'm not going to say how Murray's story ends, except to say that there's a delightful twist that I hadn't guessed.

'Tepper Isn't Going Out' is a fun book, and it's a playful poke at a former mayor or two. Put some money in the meter, sit behind the wheel, and enjoy this book! Oh, and I have one question for Murray: How did he manage to get those choice parking spots in the first place?

If books are like food, some novels are three-course meals, meaty and filling. Others are the diet plate, good for you but not very tasty. Tepper Isn't Going Out is cotton candy: sweet, light, quickly consumed...an enjoyable mid-afternoon snack.

Calvin Trillin's novel follows New Yorker Murray Tepper, a mild-mannered man with a mild-mannered job and a mild-mannered family. In short, he's a pleasant but unspectacular man who has started parking his car throughout the city and just enjoying his spot, sitting and reading the paper. Initially irritating other drivers who want his spot, Tepper eventually develops a following as people visit him in his car and relate their problems to him. Tepper's advice is minimal, but seems to always work.

Opposing him is the mayor, an extreme parody of Rudy Guliani who is obsessed with the forces of chaos and finds Tepper to be a vicious social agitator. Thus, without really doing anything, Tepper becomes a minor hero and is getting lots of notice from both press and politicians.

This is a wonderful little story, both funny and well-written. Trillin shows that his gift for humor is as strong as ever. Like cotton candy, you won't really get a lot of great "nutrition" here, but you will have a good time. And unlike cotton candy, there is no risk of cavities here.

The content of Calvin Trillin's "Tepper Isn't Going Out" can be utilized as a primer for anyone with big city parking problems as it details the do's and don'ts, the wheres and the whens of parking in New York City but also how to crack the code of any big city's parking: know your neighborhood, read the signs...basically know the rules. But this isn't all that "TIGO" is. It's also a gentle, humourous observation of Life here in the USA circa 2002. Parking as metaphor: where and why we don't fit in; can't find our niche. Murray Tepper as Exestential Man trying to carve out a place for himself and his car; always staying within the boundaries, feeding the parking meters, always parking legally. This is not Kavka's Worm unaware of why he finds himself in his circumstances for Murray Tepper is all to aware of his.
Murray Tepper is a gentle man, married, part owner of a marketing list company who enjoys driving around NYC looking for legal parking places in which to stop and read his evening paper.
By doing so, he draws the ire of NYC's mayor (named appropriately Ducavelli or "Il Duce") who hates "disorder in any form."
When Tepper naturally becomes a celebrity, people drop by his car and ask for advice: relationship, business, money, etc. The manner in which Tepper replies (or more to the point doesn't reply) to these inquiries reminds me a lot of the Peter Sellars character in "Being There" as Tepper mostly smiles and agrees and allows the questioner to work through his own question until he finds the answer himself yet hilariously credits Tepper.
It's fun to note the Trillin was also involved in a one issue magazine named "Beautiful Spot: A Magazine of Parking."
Trillin is not out to write the Great American Novel here but nonetheless he's accomplished what few writers do: he's written about the everyday things and concerns of life and made them important enough so that we the readers exalt them. As DH Lawrence said: "Do away with masters, exalt the will of the people."

Tepper Isn't Going Out will keep you at home, reading and laughing. I've got a bookshelf full of Calvin Trillin's books and have been reading him for nearly my entire adult life. His wry observations and dead-on satire intersect with a sweetness that makes his writing better than many other humorists.

Even though we live in a post-September 11th world that lionizes ex-mayor Guliani, the quirks in his personality that many New Yorkers came to know are satirized wonderfully well in this slim volume, which boasts a unique premise and funny descriptions on every page. Almost everyone I know who lives in NYC has a Calvin Trillin anecdote to share, of his wry observations at PTA meetings or his gustatory delight on display while eating some spicy food.

Reading Trillin is like being in Manhattan - and that's even when he's talking about D.C. or Kansas City. Tepper is well worth the trip, and you don't even have to leave your living room.

As a critic in the New York Times Book Review so aptly noted, much of this book's appeal is lost if one does not know, cannot understand, and has never experienced the relationship that any Manhattanite has with a parking space.

A New Yorker would kill for a good space. He would maim and pillage if the result might be a spot right in front of his building. He understands, and knows not to question the logic of, alternate side parking.

Trillin has proven himself a New Yorker. His formidable knowledge of traffic laws and patterns is often what gives this book the grain of truth it might otherwise lack.

But Mr. Trillin understands more than just the city's traffic; he understands the city. His fictional Mayor Ducavelli bears such a resemblance to former mayor Giuliani that, as his successive crackdowns upon the 'forces of disorder' become more and more draconian, you may find yourself wondering why Rudy never thought of some of his antics. Meanwhile, Trillin understands the heart of the city, and he knows how one thing leads to another; thus it seems perfectly normal that a man like Murray Tepper would compel levels of compassion not generally attributed to New Yorkers on his way to cult stardom.

But most importantly, it's just a funny book. I particularly liked several conversations with Murray's friend Jack, who insists on ordering sushi medium-well ("That means no pink showing") and the unlikely recurrence and significance of the somewhat bizarre phrase 'ya jerky bastard, ya.'

So buy a copy now, and enjoy the book, before the forces of disorder become too great to ignore.

My family complained as I read this book, because I couldn't help but laugh outloud. It was so funny and so full of those poignant little truisms about human nature. The basic story: Tepper likes to sit in his car and read the paper with time on the meter in New York City. Of course, people want him to move it so they can have the space. Does he just like to read? Or does he recall the days of his youth when his skill at finding a good parking place was a great pleasure for him (before he caved and bought a place in a parking garage)? Folks begin to line up to sit in his car for a few minutes with him and get his advice on problems. All of this infuriates a fascist mayor. This is a very nice book (readers will catch the reference to whitefish!).

Like its title character, the novel "Tepper isn't going out" is quirky, refreshing, and worth acquainting yourself with. It chronicles Murray Tepper's penchant for parking in a lighthearted but dry-wit manner, enhanced by vibrant writing and scenes that could only happen in New York.

One of the many surprises is that the novel's protagonist is a 67-year-old man. He's puzzling in the way that our fathers and grandfathers are puzzling -- why *do* some of our loved ones do the things they do, with such odd behaviors and strange habits? Calvin Trillin doesn't provide answers to those questions, but he does allay our fears, implying that we needn't worry so much.

In doing so, the novel offers some charming insights into the private life of the fictitious-yet-realistic Murray Tepper. Although we readers get to know him, we don't *really* get to know him; that is, his quirks and ticks remain beyond our full comprehension. Rather than toying around with omniscience, the author wisely takes a 3rd-person perspective, which leaves questions unanswered in a good way. (I happen to prefer books whose endings aren't *too* tidy.)

All in all, then, this is an entertaining but realistic read, full of individuality and refreshing little quirks. I highly recommend it!

Murray Tepper is either having a highly original late-midlife crisis, or he's just being a New Yorker; whichever, Calvin Trilling has written a highly amusing New York tale that may be the gentlest such to come out of the Big Applesauce.

Murray Tepper, moderately successful, devoted to family, easy-going, and easily misunderstood likes to spend his free time sitting in his car reading the paper. A life-long New Yorker, he knows the city's parking regulations, and best spots like the back of his hand. While exercising his right to park where it's legal, and his responsibility to feed the meter he manages to draw a considerable amount of unwanted attention from a host of fellow New Yorkers. Murray becomes a guru to some, a pain to others (especially the spot-on caricature of Mayor Guiliani,) and a puzzlement to friends and family.

"Tepper Isn't Going Out," is slight, but that doesn't make it less than delightful. Mr. Trilling is known as a food writer, and I don't think he'd mind someone using "Tepper..." as the sorbet between weightier courses.

I thought this little novel was just great and highly recommend it. At first I was concerned about whether this amusing little premise--a guy who parks in legal parking spots and just sits there and reads the paper--could sustain a whole novel, but in Trillin's hands, it can and it does. I thought it was inventive and amusing throughout and I loved Tepper's occupation.

Throughout much of the book, I was struck by the seeming similarity of Tepper with Chauncy Gardner of the movie "Being There" as played by Peter Sellers. Though Tepper is not of course as "slow" or autistic-seeming as Chauncy, both men have monomaniacal obsessions with one subject (Chauncy-gardening and Tepper-parking), both are men of few words (and yet the rest of the world has come to believe that those few words are imbued with genious), both men mind their own business (to a fault), both men become semi-famous seemingly through no effort or intent on their part, and both men think that every question posed to them relates to their respective areas of obsession and thus their answers relate to that obsession. Of course, appearances can be deceiving...
THE REMAINDER OF THIS REVIEW IS ONLY FOR THOSE WHO HAVE FINISHED THE BOOK!!
By the end of the book, it seems apparent in fact that Tepper is nothing like Chauncy Gardner becuase everything he did seems to have been scripted and choreographed by him to achieve exactly the result he was hoping for. It is true that his response to Fannon's theory is ambiguous. However, there seems to be alot of truth to his theory. After all: (1) Tepper's parking spots had nothing in common with each other, other than their apparent proximity to media types; (2)they were not near his home on West 84th; (3) he continued to return to the same spots even after he know that his appearance would create a circus; (4) he did absolutely nothing to avoid the groundswell of fame that was forming around him; (5) he was willing to sepak on or off the record to whoever desired to come into his car; and (6) he was willing to participate actively in the potential book and movie deals. It is also worth noting that the only answer he ever gave as to the "why" of what he did was the non- sequitor response of having time left on the meter--in other words, since he did not want to lie, and couldn't give the real reason, he gave the non-sequitor reason. It seemed somewhat far-fetched (i.e. unrealistic) to me that a person could hatch a scheme like that in the hope that it would wind up the way it did (as Tepper himself says, the person would have to be cynical), but he seems to have done it. But whether the "plot" was unrealistic or not does not change the fact that I though it was a great book.