Let the Dog Drive
Let the Dog Drive by David Bowman, published by Penguin Publishing Group in 1994, is a literary fiction novel that spans 295 pages. Set in 1976, the story follows 18-year-old Bud Salem as he escapes his mother’s TV church and encounters Sylvia Cushman, a 45-year-old housewife who enjoys driving through the Mojave Desert. Their journey takes them through various locations, including western motels and Apache gas stations, where Sylvia shares her insights on Emily Dickinson and leads Bud on explorations of petroglyphs.
Readers will find a narrative that blends elements of detective fiction with a variety of other genres, including Hollywood references and hallucinatory imagery. The plot thickens when a character dies under mysterious circumstances in Texas, prompting Bud to investigate. The story features unique scenarios such as a shootout inside an aquarium and a faked death, all while incorporating themes related to dogs, as Sylvia’s husband studies auto accidents by allowing dogs to drive cars. This edition presents a multifaceted exploration of adventure and intrigue, inviting readers to engage with its diverse narrative threads.
Official synopsis Publisher
It’s 1976. Bud Salem, 18-years-old, is fleeing his mother’s TV church and meets a woman pitching oranges in the Mojave. She’s Sylvia Cushman, a 45 year-old housewife, who loves driving alone through the desert. They traverse through western motels and Apache gas stations where Sylvia gives long lectures about Emily Dickinson and drags Bud up into the mesas to search for petroglyphs. After continuing adventures in Detroit, New York, and Amherst, the travelers part… In many ways Let the Dog Drive is an askew detective novel – when a character dies under strange circumstances in Texas, Bud goes to the Panhandle to uncover what happened. His strange narration does contain pleasures of the genre: a shootout inside an aquarium; a faked death; another shootout on a chicken farm in Texas . . . But Let the Dog Drive is also a freewheeling merging of many other genres and concerns – Hollywood, hardboiled novels of the 1930’s, Emily Dickinson’s white dress, hallucinatory cacti, the Book of Luke… And dogs. Sylvia is married to an auto engineer in Detroit, and this man studies auto accidents by letting dogs drive the cars. Literally. The drivers are often Dalmatians . .
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