Cruise Control (Stuck in Neutral, 2)

I have a confession to make. I actually wasn't going to start reading CRUISE CONTROL for another week or two. After all, I had just read Inside Out and Stuck in Neutral in quick succession. I have a lot of other books on my reviewing plate, and I didn't want anyone to think I had a Terry Trueman obsession. But then I decided, "I want to read this book now, I probably do have a Terry Trueman obsession, and no one is going to stop me!" So...that's my story, I'm sticking to it, and now for the story of CRUISE CONTROL... This book is billed as the companion book to Stuck in Neutral, not a sequel. And for good reason. This book doesn't pick up where Stuck in Neutral leaves off, although I would recommend reading that one first, if for no other reason than to learn the history of Shawn McDaniel and his family. CRUISE CONTROL is the story of Paul McDaniel, older brother to Shawn and sister Cindy, son of a prize-winning poet father who abandoned their family and a mother who works hard to take care of her children. Paul is fully aware of the unfairness and inconsistencies in his life. He's the star of the basketball team--his brother is a veg, confined to his wheelchair and unable to control any of his movements, from blinking his eyelids to swallowing his food. Paul is always angry, even to the point of physically attacking virtual strangers--his brother is unable to show any emotion, at all from love to annoyance. He hates his father for leaving the family--and yet wonders what it would be like for him to be a bigger part of it. Paul's life is, for all accounts and purposes, messed up. As his sister, Cindy, puts it: "There's no way I'll ever believe that the problems a brother like Shawn brings to a family are 'gifts from God.'" As Paul discovers that his father might not have left the family due to abandonment, as his feelings of rage turn to shame for a secret he's kept way too long, Paul realizes the truth that his mother has long known: "It's okay to love your brother." CRUISE CONTROL is Paul's story, and it's just as heartfelt and genuine as Shawn's. I'm sorry to leave the McDaniel family behind, but at least it's with the feeling of love and respect, and not sorrow and shame.

This book really is cool, but it also is sad at some parts. Paul, the main character, has a brother Shawn and a sister Cindy. Shawn has problems. He is "profoundly developmentally disabled". Paul is in the 12th grade. He hates his father, Paul doesn't want to leave his family and go to college. He feels like he will be leaving them like he thought his dad did. He is captain of a lot of sports. To the readers of this book, they should at least be 12-18 because this is a YA book (young adult). Paul swears sometimes when he is really mad, mostly when he talks about his dad. When Paul talks to his brother about the kids with the lighter and what happened, it was really sad. Not only because he wasn't all mad when talking to Shawn but mostly of what happened. This book is great and well written you actually feel like you're there!

Paul McDaniel, 17 has a sister, Cindy who is 16 and a brother Shawn, who is 14. Shawn, whom readers met in STUCK IN NEUTRAL has severe cerebral palsy. He cannot walk; talk; swallow independently nor apply any self-care skills. Unknown to all, Shawn is very bright, but cannot communicate that. Paul is a time bomb waiting to explode. An accomplished student and athlete, the one thing Paul cannot fight is Shawn's condition nor his growing anger at their father. Paul denounces the man; limits his contact with him as much as possible and is especially bitter over their father's winning a Pulitzer Prize with a poem about Shawn's condition. Paul feels that their father deserted the family and exploited Shawn. His anger comes out in the fights he picks and the dangerous risks he takes, such as threatening two bullies with immolation for attacking his brother. It is just a question of time before Paul crashes into self-destruction. Time, a supportive coach, mother and basketball team help Paul put the brakes on the anger that threatens to consume him. One line I especially loved was when Paul's mother tells him, "I'm your mother too, not just Shawn's mother." Many of the anecdotes Shawn shared in STUCK IN NEUTRAL are revisited in this novel. Terry Trueman is an author to watch out for! *Note: In INSIDE OUT, the protagonist is Zach McDaniel Wahhsted. The McDaniel connection catches readers who have read this work as well.

Terry Trueman does it again...brings readers an intense look into the heart and soul of a character without wasting a word! This powerful companion book to the award-winning book, Stuck in Neutral (a book that still haunts me), is told from Shawn's brother Paul's perspective. Paul McDaniel is very angry...at life, at his father, at his brother, but perhaps more importantly at himself - for a secret that is at the very core of this additional look at how one family deals with heartache and tragedy in very different ways. The reality of Paul's anger is at times difficult to watch with readers feeling the pain rage inside of him. Even with all of the anger, readers will see a loving side to Paul...the loving side that feeds his brother bits of potato chips and wants desperately to be sure that Shawn knows he is his brother. While not a sequel and a title that certainly stands on its own, Cruise Control adds another dimension to a story that continues to have readers talking and thinking about the potential for one life to mean something more than it appears on the surface.

In STUCK IN NEUTRAL, Terry Trueman's 2001 award-winning novel, he developed a most unlikely narrator: Shawn, a young man whose body is incapacitated by severe cerebral palsy, but whose mind is more engaged than anyone would have imagined. Now, Trueman gives Shawn's older brother Paul a voice in the companion novel CRUISE CONTROL. Paul is pretty much the polar opposite of Shawn: he is popular, gifted, a jock who can trust his body to perform at the highest level. He's also deeply angry, with a quick temper and a tendency to fly off the handle. Much of Paul's anger is directed at his father, a writer who wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning poem about Shawn after he left the family, and now seems to use Shawn mostly for photo ops and talk show appearances. Paul, who deeply loves his brother (even though he calls him a "veg"), resents his father for abandoning him and for escaping the day-to-day realities of living with a profoundly disabled family member. CRUISE CONTROL is sometimes a disturbing book, as when the reader is taken into Paul's head as he beats up a complete stranger, or when Paul and his equally angry friend Tim drive drunk. Although STUCK IN NEUTRAL was perhaps a more powerful book, in part because of its unusual and surprising narrator, CRUISE CONTROL is still a complex and moving portrayal, even with its more conventional main character. Although each novel can stand on its own merits, STUCK IN NEUTRAL and CRUISE CONTROL gain strength when read together, as they form a more complete portrait of a family dealing with the daily heartbreak of Shawn's disability. --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl