Synopses & Reviews
The author of
Population: 485 returns, delivering a truckload of humor, heart, and...gardening tips? Think
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, complete with stock cars, sexy vegetables, and a laugh track.
"All I wanted to do was fix my old pickup truck," says Michael Perry. "That, and plant my garden. Then I met this woman." Truck: A Love Story recounts a year in which Perry struggles to grow his own food (Seed catalogs are responsible for more unfulfilled fantasies than Enron and Penthouse combined), live peaceably with his neighbors (one test-fires his black powder rifle in the alley; another's best Sunday shirt reads 100 PERCENT WHUP-ASS), and sort out his love life. But along the way, he sets his hair on fire, is attacked by wild turkeys, takes a date to the fire department chicken dinner, and proposes marriage to a woman in New Orleans. As with Population: 485, much of the spirit of Truck: A Love Story may be found in the characters Perry meets: a one-eyed land surveyor, a paraplegic biker who rigs a sidecar so that his quadriplegic pal can ride along, a bartender who refuses to sell light beer, an enchanting woman who never existed, and half the staff of National Public Radio.
By turns hilarious and heartfelt, a tale that begins on a pile of sheep manure, detours to the Whitney Museum of American Art, and returns to the deer-hunting swamps of northern Wisconsin, Truck: A Love Story becomes a testament to the surprising and unintended consequences of love.
Review
"Perry writes about fixing his truck as if he was resurrecting it, but in fact, he may more accurately be said to have been resurrecting himself." Booklist
Synopsis
"A touching and very funny account. . . . Thoroughly engaging."--New York Times
Hilarious and heartfelt, Truck: A Love Story is the tale of a man struggling to grow his own garden, fix his old pickup, and resurrect a love life permanently impaired by Neil Diamond. In the process, he sets his hair on fire, is attacked by wild turkeys, and proposes marriage to a woman in New Orleans. The result is a surprisingly tender testament to love.
"Part Bill Bryson, part Anne Lamott, with a skim of Larry the Cable Guy and Walt Whitman creeping around the edges."--Lincoln Journal Star
"Perry takes each moment, peeling it, seasoning it with rich language, and then serving it to us piping hot and fresh."--Chicago Tribune
Synopsis
As with his popular Population: 485, Perry delivers a truckload of humor, heart, and gardening tips in this chronicle of a year in which he grows his own food, seeks to live peaceably with his neighbors, and sort out his love life.
About the Author
Michael Perry is the author of the critically acclaimed and bestselling memoir Population: 485 in addition to the essay collection Off Main Street. He lives in Wisconsin.