cover image Auto Biography: A Classic Car, an Outlaw Motorhead, and 57 Years of the American Dream

Auto Biography: A Classic Car, an Outlaw Motorhead, and 57 Years of the American Dream

Earl Swift. It Books, $26.99 (368p) ISBN 978-0-06-228266-8

In this engrossing and entertaining book, Swift (The Big Roads) tells the story of a car%E2%80%94not the story of a classic car model, but the story of a particular 1957 Chevy owned, in the 57 years since its manufacture, by 14 different people. While at first the conceit may seem itself too manufactured, the narrative tactfully unfolds with deeply human stories of struggle, ambition, hopes, dreams. The book's main thread follows Tommy Arney, a charming, foul-mouthed, and endlessly interesting businessman, who is tasked with restoring the Chevy to its original glory. We learn along the way the life of the vehicle and how it fit into the lives of its previous owners; we learn too of Arney's past, marked by violence and struggles of his own. Swift is a wonderful guide and the stories he relates are engaging in their own right. Welded together, though, these vignettes take on a fuller meaning, as the restoration becomes social metaphor. (May)