The Car

In this new novel, Paulsen, the author of Hatchet amongst other powerful novels in the Hemingway tradition, again takes up the theme of boys confronting the wildness within and around them. The book starts comparatively quietly and quite wittily: Terry's parents have both walked out on each other, each assuming that the other is home. Terry is left on his own with a kit car in boxes. Building it and then heading out west is just the beginning. First he is befriended by a hobo, special forces veteran Waylon, whose Vietnam background is shown in intervening flashbacks. Then the journey begins, a journey of experience for Terry as he is tutored by Waylon and his buddy into understanding more about the American past and more about the nature of violence which, confusingly, is both to be admired and rejected. A boys' book (car engines are mended frequently and there are lots of fights) albeit in a right-on kind of way, this is also a powerful book about growing and developing.