Alison's Automotive Repair Manual

With it's wise-cracking dialogue and oddball characters, this book explores serious themes of loss (accidental and intentional), love and death, and truth. Alison Durst, a former badgirl turned community college history teacher, still mourns the accidental death of her husband Marty after more than a year, and Sarah, her married (but not comfortably so, as she and her husband Bill struggle to get pregnant), encourages her to get on with her life. She meets Max, but of course pushes him away at first as he competes with the ghost of Marty. She is drawn to him--he, the munitions expert, adept at destroying things, buildings, silos, relationships--and at the same time sets about trying to make things right. Against a background that at first seems silly--the unifying thread is Alison's restoration of a hopeless 1976 Corvette--this book does a masterful job of portraying, and resolving, Alison's conflicts.

I've been reading Barkley's work for several years, and this novel shines. He does an admirable job of portraying a woman widowed in her thirties, inspects grief without oversentimentalizing, and even manages to weave a great deal of humor into a book that travels through the murkiness of memory and loss.Set in a small West Virginia town, the novel brings you exactly the kinds of Southern characters you'd hope for: quirky, endearing, and full of the kinds of eccentricities that make you want to plunk yourself down in the middle of the story to talk to them for a while. Buy it. Read it. You won't be sorry.

In "Bird by Bird" Anne Lamott says she wishes there were more funny books about cancer. No, Barkley's novel is not a funny book about cancer, but it is a funny book about grief. Not funny ha-ha, but funny like all the absurdly inexplicable losses in your own life, once you have a little perspective on them. "Alison's Automotive Repair Manual" deftly carries the weight of a great loss, but couples it with the lightness of eccentric and endearing characters. The balance is perfect, for Alison, and for the reader. We never feel her recovery is too easy -- she has to get her fingernails dirty, in all sorts of ways -- but by the end we are convinced such hard-won recoveries are possible, and usually come in unlikely packages.

In West Virginia, thirty something widow Alison Durst remains in mourning though her husband died in an accident two years ago. Her sister Sarah and brother-in-law Bill have been supportive, but even they are tiring of Alison as a permanent, grieving guest plus they care and just want her to rebuild her life. Both believe she needs to start over first by moving into her own home.However Alison is not ready to leave. Although she knows nothing about cars, she decides to rebuild Bill's broken-down Corvette. She will move out once she completes her task. Munitions manufacturer Max Kesler agrees to assist Alison on her quest. They begin seeing each other although his father's behavior jeopardizes this relationship before the attraction can become anything permanent.ALISON'S AUTOMOTIVE REPAIR MANUAL is an amusing romantic romp with serious undertones that is at its best when the lead couple goes out on dates at weird locales. Her side, including her late husband, provides strong support so that the reader further understands Alison's struggles with getting on with her life. On the other hand, his father impedes the flow of a delightful tale worth reading by fans of second chance romances.Harriet Klausner

This is a beautiful book-- reaffirming in its exploration of loss and guilt and burgeoning love, an old story perhaps, but these characters are fresh and real and funny. Barkley's attention to detail is dazzling.