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Drives Like a Dream: A Novel
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780618143313
ISBN: 0618143319
Label: Houghton Mifflin
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: March 04, 2005
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Studio: Houghton Mifflin
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Editorial Review:
The New York Times called Porter Shreve's first novel, The Obituary Writer, "an involving and sneakily touching story whose twists feel less like the conventions of a genre than the convolutions of a heart — any heart." Newsday hailed the book as "a substantial achievement," and Tim O'Brien described it as "taut, compelling, and moving . . . beautifully written, engrossing from start to finish." Shining with the same heart and humor, Shreve's second novel, Drives Like a Dream, is a smart, wry tale about a modern-day mother in the midst of a lifestyle crisis — and her outlandish attempts to get her family back.
Lydia Modine is sixty-one and about to come undone. Her three grown-up children have flown the coop. She hasn't seen them together in more than a year, and now her ex-husband is about to remarry a woman half his age. And the insults keep coming: Lydia is stuck on a book she's writing about Detroit's car industry, which uncannily parallels her own life — out with the old model, in with the new. She's poured her soul into her family, only to be abandoned in the City of Dream Machines. But then a twist of fate introduces her to Norm, an eco-car fanatic out to remake her and the world. Is he the answer to all of her problems, or does he hold the one secret that just might get her children back to Detroit, home for good?
A warm, funny, and affecting novel that's sure to appeal to anyone who has longed for an alternate life, Drives Like a Dream confirms that sometimes when you set out for a spin, the twists and turns can be perfectly rewarding — and right.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - boring drive
This book sounded so much better than it really was. It was slow, boring and confusing. The main character needed serious counseling, and her children needed a kick in the pants. Very disappointing.
Rating:  - lydia is my mother in law
this book made my MIL cry and then deny that she was lydia. i found the whole thing emotional in a weird way, and kept thinking about this article my friend sent me, written by a housewife who's husband up and left her after many years of marriage. i think this was in the new york times. she ended up practically in poverty, while the husband was doing fine, remarried, etc. i'm betting this happens to older or middle-age women all the time (i just rewatched the first wives club on tv the other day). ... Read More
Rating: - Whether in Egypt or America, these people are true
My life has been full of circuitous routes and my route to this book was no different. In the late 1980s my family lived in Cairo. My husband had a placement there. So recently my daughter sent me a link to an article by Porter Shreve called "Derelicts in the Sinai," about his trip to Egypt around the time we would have lived there. I was so struck by the honesty of the piece and the vividness of the descriptions that I followed links to Mr. Shreve's books. This one interested me more since I'm a mother ... Read More
Rating: - A realistic story about an older woman's reinvention
Lydia Modine is a mother of three adult children who have moved all across the country and she has a case of empty nest syndrome. The absent kids make her feel lonely and agitated. In order to reinvent herself she comes up with a whole new life for herself, and in the process has to lie to her children. I think Shreve does a nice job of showing how Lydia gets pushed to extremes. At times I thought the antics got to be a bit much (like when the suitor, Norm, shows up at the house and Lydia has to hide him ... Read More
Rating:  - Good idea, not-so-great execution
I loved the premise of this book - linking the downfall of a city and industry to the downfall of a family entrenched in its history. The execution could have been much better, though. It was a good idea and worked in the beginning. Having spent time in Detroit, I liked the settings. Shreve did a decent job of bringing the city to life on the pages. When I'm in Royal Oak and downtown next month, I know I'll be looking for sights mentioned in the book.
The characters were shallow, barely more ... Read More
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