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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
After his well-received, quirky 2000 debut, The Obituary Writer, Shreve succumbs to the sophomore slump with a dull and far-fetched follow-up. Cars are in Lydia Modine's blood: her father had worked for Ford, Tucker and GM, she's an expert on his former boss, Preston Tucker, and she still lives right outside a tarnished and crumbling Detroit. Now divorced after 33 years of marriage, Lydia, a "social historian of the automobile," sees too many parallels between herself and the subject of her fifth book: " 'planned obsolescence.' Out with the old, in with the new." In the wake of her ex-husband Cy's wedding to a younger woman, 61-year-old Lydia is desperate to escape her sense of loss and restore a sense of family with her three grown children. Shreve's considerable historical research is obvious and admirable, but unless the reader is fascinated by the car industry, it will seem like overkill. Leads that could have been interesting remain unpursued, while an unlikely relationship between Lydia and Cy's new in-laws is developed. Also unlikely is Lydia's scheme to lure her children back home, which borders on the slapstick. Shreve shows promise with some strong character writing, but erratic storytelling, a hasty conclusion and a surfeit of auto lore stall the tale.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
Renowned car historian Lydia Modine is not prepared for what her later years have in store. She had assumed that her family would stay together. Her three grown children would find jobs close to home in suburban Detroit while she and her husband, Cy, got reacquainted. Instead, Lydia's children have scattered to different parts of the country, and her husband of 33 years--now her ex--is getting married to a woman half his age. To escape, Lydia pours herself into a book project about her father's distinguished career as a car designer--first for Preston Tucker and later for GM--and she unearths some potentially damning information. For decades a conspiracy theory had circulated that Tucker had been sabotaged by a former employee who gave away his secrets to the big three automakers. Gradually, Lydia realized that her father might have been the saboteur. As her convictions crumble, Lydia behaves increasingly erratically. How her family contends with the seismic shifts in her personality and her eventual stabilization makes this an affecting character-driven novel. Jerry Eberle
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
See all Editorial Reviews
After his well-received, quirky 2000 debut, The Obituary Writer, Shreve succumbs to the sophomore slump with a dull and far-fetched follow-up. Cars are in Lydia Modine's blood: her father had worked for Ford, Tucker and GM, she's an expert on his former boss, Preston Tucker, and she still lives right outside a tarnished and crumbling Detroit. Now divorced after 33 years of marriage, Lydia, a "social historian of the automobile," sees too many parallels between herself and the subject of her fifth book: " 'planned obsolescence.' Out with the old, in with the new." In the wake of her ex-husband Cy's wedding to a younger woman, 61-year-old Lydia is desperate to escape her sense of loss and restore a sense of family with her three grown children. Shreve's considerable historical research is obvious and admirable, but unless the reader is fascinated by the car industry, it will seem like overkill. Leads that could have been interesting remain unpursued, while an unlikely relationship between Lydia and Cy's new in-laws is developed. Also unlikely is Lydia's scheme to lure her children back home, which borders on the slapstick. Shreve shows promise with some strong character writing, but erratic storytelling, a hasty conclusion and a surfeit of auto lore stall the tale.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
Renowned car historian Lydia Modine is not prepared for what her later years have in store. She had assumed that her family would stay together. Her three grown children would find jobs close to home in suburban Detroit while she and her husband, Cy, got reacquainted. Instead, Lydia's children have scattered to different parts of the country, and her husband of 33 years--now her ex--is getting married to a woman half his age. To escape, Lydia pours herself into a book project about her father's distinguished career as a car designer--first for Preston Tucker and later for GM--and she unearths some potentially damning information. For decades a conspiracy theory had circulated that Tucker had been sabotaged by a former employee who gave away his secrets to the big three automakers. Gradually, Lydia realized that her father might have been the saboteur. As her convictions crumble, Lydia behaves increasingly erratically. How her family contends with the seismic shifts in her personality and her eventual stabilization makes this an affecting character-driven novel. Jerry Eberle
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
See all Editorial Reviews
Product Details
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