Let the Dog Drive

Let the Dog Drive is a tribute to the hard boiled detective genre and to offbeat American classics like Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. In this strange road novel, the young hero's life is transformed when he hitches a ride with an eccentric older woman whose main pleasure in life involves hurling citrus from moving automobiles. Their adventures together, and his solo exploits after her murder, are truly bizarre. It's hard to give an accurate description of this unique bildungsroman, but, if you enjoy the likes of Joe Lansdale, Don Webb, Neil Barrett Jr. or Gary Raisor, you'll probably get a kick out of this.

This book was one of my first adolescent literary loves. It was among the first that began my lensding library of contemporary fiction. As such, I have purchased it about five times. Each time that it comes back, I read it again. It is fresh and touching each time as it was the first. In Sylvia, I found a literary woman who was worth idolizing. She is by no means perfect, but it is by that token that one cannot help but love her. Not love her a little; rather, she challenges you to not fall madly and passionately in love with her. When you do, she won't give you another thought. She was a woman both self-absorbed and extroverted. Needless to say that I fell in love with her. She is a woman ruled by the men in her life, but fixed by a female literary force, both powerful and meek. In contrast, Orange Boy is ruled by women, powerful ones who are destructive when brought together. The conflicts of male and female energy, of intellectual and sexual concerns and of family versus personal responsibilities are presented in "Drive" like nowhere else that I have yet to find. This book is as brilliant as it was the first time that I read it. Thank you to Bowman for his intimacy with beauty.

I am not sure what this book is about. It's terribly arresting and I couldn't put it down, but if you enjoy clear-cut plot lines, and sensible characters, you'll quickly dismiss it. Mr. Bowman's writing in "Dog" occasionally veers into unexpected flights of fancy, but for a simple story of a hitchiking boy, it's immediately satisfying. I typically judge a book by its lasting impact upon me, and though it's been four years since first reading "Dog", I must recommend this title sheerly based on its staying power in my memory. Mr. Bowman competently wrote extrememly visual passages for this, his debut novel, and having devoured hundreds of fiction titles since, I think Mr. Bowman must have done something right if his images of Sylvia Cushman's fruit-chunking charm is still dancing in my mind's eye. If you choose to read a book titled "Let the Dog Drive", you should accept that it may not be smooth sailing all the way, but what a ride it is.

let the dog drive is the love child of jack kerouac's desolation angels, kurt vonnegut's hocus pocus and tom wolfe's electric kool-aid acid test. bizarre, engaging, emotional -- i made a list of books those who wish to be close to me must read -- drive found its way into the top ten.

The first time that I have ever had to stop reading a book so that I could applaud the author. An absolutely incredible, wild and fantastic ride. Bowman paints a picture better than anyone since Monet.