The Last Studebaker: A Novel (Break Away Books) - Softcover

Hemley, Robin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0253000122 ISBN 13: 9780253000125

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2012

Synopsis

In 1963, when Lois Kulwicki's father loses his job at Studebaker along with hundreds of other workers, he acts as if he has just been promoted. He buys a new car (the only non-Studebaker he's ever purchased) and takes his family on vacation. On the way home, Mom dumps Dad at a Stuckey's, and that's the last they see of him.

Thirty years later, Lois has a family of her own, as fractured as her childhood family. Divorced but still living with her ex, she decides to move out with her two daughters and start over but then a stranger named Henry enters their lives. Out of this ersatz family, Lois tries to recover something of what she lost, beginning with a search for her abandoned father. The Last Studebaker is a warmly comic tale of lives changed forever, after the last Studebaker rolled off of the assembly line.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Robin Hemley sets his story in South Bend, Indiana, where the closing of the Studebaker plant years ago has had disastrous consequences for Lois Kulwicki. The Last Studebaker is human comedy at its best, a warm and funny look at a family in transition-- an ever-expanding family whose lives have been profoundly shaped by the automobile.

Praise for The Last Studebaker

"[Robin Hemley] has infused just the right amount of humor and pathos into his exploration of how people discover and maintain connections in these bewildering times." (Cathy A. Colman, New York Times Book Review)

"The Last Studebaker is never gimmicky, and offers hope beyond economic and personal despair. It's not only the Studebaker, but life itself, that evokes rueful glances and missed opportunities, along with tenderness and unpredictable charm." (Rachel Schteir, Washington Post Book World)

"Robin Hemley has crafted a funny and brilliant novel, a portrait of America so accurate and perceptive that The Last Studebaker ought to be included in a time capsule labeled "America: 1963-1992."" (Judith Slater, Lincoln Journal-Star)

About the Author

Robin Hemley is Director of the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa and author of ten books. His essays and fiction have been published in the New York Times, New York Magazine, and the Chicago Tribune.

About this edition

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0253000122
• ISBN 13: 9780253000125
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 258