BOOKISH FRIDAY: “THE RED CAR”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which I  share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers, who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with Freda’s Voice.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Then give us the title of the book, so others can add it to their lists!

What better way to spend a Friday!

Today’s feature is a recent download:  The Red Car, by Marcy Dermansky, is a wildly imaginative, rebellious, and tender tale of independence.

 

 

 

Beginning:  (Prologue)

It was a surprise to open The New York Times in my parents’ kitchen and see a picture of Jonathan Beene.  He had won an award for business innovation.  They give awards like that.  He was the founder of an Internet tech company that allowed individuals to fund other people’s art projects, taking a small percentage of each donation.  The company gave a generous share of its profits to women in the third world who wanted to start businesses.

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56:  In the airport, I was surprised by how little it took to make me feel happy again.  I bought an Interview magazine which featured a French actress that I loved being interviewed by an American actress that I loved.  They were both starring in the same movie directed by a Polish director whose movies I also loved.

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Synopsis:  Leah is living in Queens with a possessive husband she doesn’t love and a long list of unfulfilled ambitions, when she’s jolted from a thick ennui by a call from the past. Her beloved former boss and friend, Judy, has died in a car accident and left Leah her most prized possession and, as it turns out, the instrument of Judy’s death: a red sports car.

 

Judy was the mentor Leah never expected. She encouraged Leah’s dreams, analyzed her love life, and eased her into adulthood over long lunches away from the office. Facing the jarring disconnect between the life she expected and the one she is now actually living, Leah takes off for San Francisco to claim Judy’s car. In sprawling days defined by sex, sorrow, and unexpected delight, Leah revisits past lives and loves in search of a self she abandoned long ago. Piercing through Leah’s surreal haze is the enigmatic voice of Judy, as sharp as ever, providing wry commentary on Leah’s every move.

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I am not quite sure what to think of this one.  What about you?  Does it grab you?  Make you want to keep reading?  I suspect that I might find something that resonates with me in the pages, specifically how one can be jolted out of reality by a tragedy.  A jolt that changes everything.

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