Product Description

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. 1006

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59348 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-01
• Released on: 2007-07-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From Publishers Weekly
A part-time emergency medical technician, Perry delivers the latest account of his somewhat idiosyncratic life and times in a small Wisconsin town ("I am happy to live in a place where I can chuck a washing machine out my back door and no one judges my behavior unusual"). Here, he focuses on two main events over the course of a year: fixing up a 1951 International Harvester pickup truck and developing a romance with a local woman after a long stretch of failed relationships. Never cloying, Perry is a wry observer of how success in both areas "is the result of a modest accumulation of lucky breaks and the kindness of others," and displays the storytelling and observational skills that made his first book, Population: 485, such a success. One of his most memorable descriptions is of an ex-patient, Ozzie, a motorcycle-loving ventilator-dependent quadriplegic, who gets to ride again after his wheelchair is hooked up to the cycle of his paraplegic friend Pat—"You haven't really explored the outer limits of health care until you've watched a Hell's Angel suction a tracheotomy tube." (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* One wouldn't think that repairing a beat-up old pickup could become a life-altering undertaking. And yet, for Perry, it was all that and more: an epic adventure that encompassed love, diplomacy, a little hydroponics, and even some danger (like setting yourself on fire). Perry, who is also the author of -Population: 485 (2002), propels the story forward as if he were writing a novel, helped by a cast of characters who range from the lightly offbeat to the totally bizarre. The prose is straightforward, almost deadpan, but behind the words, the reader feels a heightened sense of irony, as though Perry knows how weird it all is but figures, what the heck, it's true so why not just go with it. The heart of the book tells dual love stories--man and truck; man and woman--that are, in their own ways, equally passionate. 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. The truck is transformed, certainly, but the multiplicity of changes that Perry goes through run deeper and likely will last longer. Recommend this one enthusiastically to fans of self--exploration books and truck-repair manuals--and all readers in between. Motorcycle maintenance for a new century. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"A reminder, by a talent of the hinterlands, to celebrate small-town life and to treasure human relationships." (Kirkus Reviews )

"The deer-hunting, truck-loving Michael Perry has the soul of a poet." (Chicago Tribune Books )

Customer Reviews

takes time to inhabit this world
Michael Perry is a true writer. He knows how to turn an apt phrase and hits on what is True in life. His earlier book, Population 485, is one of my favorite books (it made me smile and made me cry) Where Perry succeeded greatly with Population 485, he nearly succeeds greatly here. Perry writes on the real deal about people-- the funny, the sad, the admirable, the eccentricities, as well as vulnerabilities and covered-up vulnerabilities (and his own vulnerabilities too) This is where he is wonderful, especially since he is down-to-earth. Perry has lots of human insights in Truck, however they come in a more-meandering writing style. Perry is still a great read, particularly when he is writing about human beings. Read Population 485 if you haven't been introduced to Perry yet; there is little out there that is any better. Truck is very much worth reading, easily worth 5 stars if it had a tightened focus. If you have particular interest in truck restoration(International Harvesters in particular); and/or in the daily delights of gardening -- then you may find these increased meanderings wonderful. Population 485 moved with more urgency but also had the delightful mix of insights and was a fast read. I've been living with (in?) Truck for nearly a week now, soaking in a couple chapters a day. So like the centerline chats Perry describes (shooting the breeze in the middle of the road, one vehicle stopped alongside another) Truck is a book that takes time. On reflection, Perry's meandering isn't a fault as much as it is an accurate depiction of his life. Appreciating and inhabiting this world takes time.

If only it were an audio book too!
What a wonderful voice! He has a knack for choosing just the right words to bring the people to life. The story could be sentimental but it's not. It could be Lake Woebegon, but it's funnier. Michael Perry knows how to make you laugh, but even better than the words on the page is him telling the stories behind the stories. I listened to him read from his books, and this book zoomed right to the top of my Christmas list.

parallel universes
I flat love this book, just as I did Perry's previous work, "Population 485." But I have to admit, we live in parallel universes: We both call a gas pedal a foot feed (I think we both learned to drive on farm tractors), both had our marriages sanctified by dear friends who happened to be pseudo-ministers of tax-dodge churches, both have second lives as EMS volunteers in rural towns, and both have written books about restoring old vehicles that are actually books about our inner secrets. Michael Perry's book is way better than mine, and I'm glad of that, because his is not really about rebuilding a 1951 International Harvester pickup but about falling in love with his wife Anneliese as a middle-aged loner worried by commitment. May their marriage last forever and may this book be read and appreciated just as long, for it's a work in which every word is carefully chosen, something so rare in an age of lazy writing. It's a book about the glory of true love, and I'm sure that Perry knows John Prine's words....