Drivers

Drivers is a collection of stories spun around a central theme: cars, and the people who drive them. The 23 stories vary from extremely short flash fiction to sprawling full-length short stories. It is Nathan's third collection of short stories.

I began reading it not knowing what to expect, but was soon drawn into a world of classic, rare cars, drag racing, and the twisting, lonely pipelines that are America's arteries, scarred and dangerous as they often are. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the writing and the variety of forms it took.

As with any collection, some of the stories are better than others. My favorite was definitely Flyboys Down the Big End, which I read twice. Flyboys is a story about the early days of drag racing, and it bites deep with an authentic, matter-of-fact account of the sport before it became organized:

Breen didn't have a lot of friends amongst the fans there—mostly flyboy crewmembers or wanna-bees or general riff-raff. Back then motorcycles were considered flimsy by most of the kids; they were for jellyfish. But this Breen had won six straight and hit 140 when the dragsters couldn't even top 130 veering out of the go.
—Excerpt from Flyboys Down the Big End

I found myself reminded of some of the junior fiction I used to read in grade school, cautionary tales of teens and souped up cars, of lethal combinations of hormones, girls, and burnished chrome. Don't think that this collection falls in that category, however. Despite the fascination with the American automobile, the focus of the stories remains for the most part on the all too human characters. Consider this excerpt:

And as I peeked through the window slats in the door, I heard what I think haunted Mr. Fillister: the sound of a young boy running up the stairs to his room, to get a ball, or a game, or an extra sweatshirt, or to talk to one of his friends on the phone. And I could hear her calling to him. Her!
—Excerpt from 29 Old Yancy West

It's this focus that makes the collection worth reading, to my mind. Fans of classic cars may enjoy these stories for their authentic feel—fans of the short story for the characters, some of them memorable. Either way, Drivers makes a mark with it's simple, relevant themes and the whisper, faintly heard, of the lonely American highway, folding in on itself the million dreams of all the drivers with their hands tightly gripping the wheel.

You can buy the book through Hamilton Stone editions website. You can also get a taste of Nathan's writing by reading his story Magazines, published in the Dec 04 - Jan 05 issue of rumble.

Review by Craig Snyder. Craig is the publisher of, and a story editor at, rumble THE micro fiction e-zine.

• rumble
• current
• bio
• links