Swerve - REVIEWS

A Joy Ride Back to the Fifties

I’m a baby boomer, born not long after the end of World War II. I spent my early childhood idolizing those older teenage guys who swaggered around wearing leather jackets and butch-waxed hair, smoking cigarettes, and driving souped-up cars.

This is the second book in Jim Lindsay’s “Little Bastards” series, and it’s about those guys. Sonny Mitchell, a hot rod racing born teenager born “on the wrong side of town,” wants what every high school guy wants - the hot girl from school who is totally out of his league. Oh yeah, he also wants to work his way out of his birthright of a life of drudgery at the local mill by saving every penny to go to college. He won the heart of that hot girl, Marilyn, by saving her life in the previous book.

The story is light and fun, told in the hard-edged but sort of innocent vernacular of the 1950s. Sonny and his buddies go to drive-in movies and reminisce about their childhood adventures. They race. They work hard and drink as much as they can manage. They dream of a better future. Every time he gets the chance, Sonny defies Marilyn’s bank president father who has forbidden their romance. The book ends in fine ‘50s fashion, with Sonny winning the big drag race against the “unbeatable” Impala of Crazy Horse, solving a mystery that was threatening the future of the mill, and winning the respect of Marilyn’s "old man."

Along with the fun of taking this joy ride back to the fifties, also I enjoyed Lindsay’s obvious knowledge of building and racing hot rods. The car references brought back memories of burning rubber and putting “Ethyl” - for an extra two or three cents per gallon - in the gas tank.

So if, like me, you're a child of the fifties, or if you just want to see what it was like to be one, you will enjoy this book.

Mike Ball, Author, Erma Bombeck award winning columnist, finalist for the Robert Benchley Award