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Summary
Summary
A darkly funny coming-of-age story from an award-winning, bestselling German author making his American debut.Mike Klingenberg doesn't get why people think he's boring. Sure, he doesn't have many friends. (Okay, zero friends.) And everyone laughs at him when he reads his essays out loud in class. And he's never invited to parties - including the gorgeous Tatiana's party of the year.Andre Tschichatschow, aka Tschick (not even the teachers can pronounce his name), is new in school, and a whole different kind of unpopular. He always looks like he's just been in a fight, his clothes are tragic, and he never talks to anyone.But one day Tschick shows up at Mike's house out of the blue. Turns out he wasn't invited to Tatiana's party either, and he's ready to do something about it. Forget the popular kids: Together, Mike and Tschick are heading out on a road trip. No parents, no map, no destination. Will they get hopelessly lost in the middle of nowhere? Probably. Will they meet crazy people and get into serious trouble? Definitely. But will they ever be called boring again? Not a chance.
Author Notes
Wolfgang Herrndorf (1965-2013) was born in Hamburg, Germany, and studied painting before turning to writing later in his career. He wrote several award-winning novels for adults, and WHY WE TOOK THE CAR was the receipient of the German Youth Literature Award.
Reviews (6)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 Up-Mike, 14, is one of the only kids in his middle school not invited to the birthday blowout thrown by Tatiana, his secret crush. His home life is dismal-his alcoholic mother is in and out of rehab and his father is embittered, unfaithful, and nearly bankrupt. But everything has shifted with the arrival of transfer student Tschick, a child of Russian immigrants who is obviously bright but withdrawn and is frequently drunk during school. When Tschick hotwires an old Lada, the two boys light out for the territory and encounter a sequence of oddball characters, including Isa-a fiercely independent girl who lives in a junkyard and casually asks Mike whether he'd like to have sex or, as an afterthought, kiss her-and Horst Fricke, a gun-waving communist with a disconcerting interest in "the alabaster body of adolescence." The novel was a 2010 bestseller and award winner in Germany. Opening with "the smell of blood and coffee" and ending with Mike and his mom tossing furniture into the swimming pool, the story is offbeat and funny, and the main characters incisively drawn. For the right reader, it's a teen road movie with a bundle of twists. Still, while some cultural references will be transparent to American teens (Wikipedia, Beyonce, Grand Theft Auto for PlayStation), the translation is also rich with local allusions and arcane discussion of German soccer. And though much of the story has a rollicking Gordon Korman feel to it, the language is often coarse and the mood chaotically dark.-Bob Hassett, Luther Jackson Middle School, Falls Church, VA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
German novelist Herrndorf makes his YA (and U.S.) debut with this action- and emotion-packed story of surprise summer adventure. When German eighth-grader Mike Klingenberg discovers that he's among the few "Boring kids and losers... Russians, Nazis and idiots" who are not invited to his crush Tatiana's birthday party, he is devastated. Mike is facing a miserable summer, with his mother in rehab and father away at a "business meeting" with his sexy assistant, when his new Russian classmate, Tschick (whom Mike considers "trash"), arrives at his house in a stolen car. An unlikely compatibility leads to a candy-fueled road trip, complicated by their lack of a map or cell phone. Driving all over Germany, the boys face conundrums like avoiding the police, buying gas and food when clearly underage, and vaguely seeking Tschick's grandfather. Prepared by life to expect ill will, Mike and Tschick instead meet "almost only people from the one percent who weren't bad." Beginning at the end, with Mike narrating the explanation suggested by the title, this alternately wild, sad, hilarious, and tender tale chronicles the development of a strange and beautiful friendship. Ages 14-up. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Two teens abandon their lackluster lives and hit the Autobahn in this audacious tragicomedy. Mike Klingenberg, boring and unpopular, lives a life of quiet desperation at his Berlin junior high. New kid Tschick comes to class drunk and might be in the Russian mafia; he's not winning friends, but at least everyone's paying attention. So when Tschick rolls up to Mike's house in a hotwired car and proposes a road trip without a map, destination, or driver's license, Mike says yes. Although the telling begins at its ignominious end, their story is, in many ways, a traditional road trip: the characters ponder their existence and gain independence while mastering the stick shift, evading local police, and encountering a collection of increasingly weird locals. Mike's narration is an anxious stream of wry humor and linked anecdotes, but the moments when his faade slips are abrupt and startling windows into the pain of social exclusion and the aching loneliness of being fourteen. A sharp coming-of-age journey, hilarious and heartrending in equal measure. jessica tackett macdonald (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Social misfits hit the Autobahn. Mike Klingenberg has just finished another boring, socially awkward year in middle school and is staring down a solitary two-week stint at home, thanks to his mother's latest round of rehab and his father's "business trip" with a suspiciously attractive personal assistant. Just as he's watering the lawn, imagining himself lord of a very small manor in suburban Berlin, class reject Tschick shows up in a "borrowed" old Soviet-era car, and the boys hatch a plan to hit the road. Mike's rich interior life--he meditates on beauty and the meaning of life and spins self-mocking fantasies of himself as a great essayist--hasn't translated well to the flirtatious physical swagger required by 8th grade. Tschick, meanwhile, is a badly dressed Russian immigrant who often shows up to school reeking of alcohol and who is also given to profound leaps of psychological insight. Their road trip (destination: Wallachia, a German euphemism for "the middle of nowhere"; also a region of Romania) is peopled by unexpected, often bizarre, largely benign characters who deepen Mike's appreciation for humanity and life. Each episode in the boys' journey grows more outrageous, leading readers to wonder how far they'll go before coming to a literal screeching (and squealing) halt. In his first novel translated into English, Herrndorf sits squarely and triumphantly at the intersection of literary tall tale and coming-of-age picaresque. (Fiction. 14-17)]]]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
German teenager Mike Klingenberg is an average student. He goes unnoticed by the other students, has an unrequited crush on the hottest girl in class, and is just a bit boring. But when Andrej Tschichatschow, aka Tschick, shows up, things change. Tschick is definitely interesting he sleeps in class, always looks like he's been in a fight, and just might be part of the Russian Mafia. When Mike and Tschick are not invited to popular girl Tatiana's summer birthday party, they decide an adventure is in store. They steal a car and head out on a road trip across Germany. Do they have any idea what they're doing? Not a clue. But this is their chance to take charge and do something. While some of their mishaps are a bit over-the-top and Tschick's big secret is revealed without much of a punch, Mike's journey from dull to confident teen is an enjoyable one. Well translated, this is a good choice for readers looking for a contemporary realistic novel with a humorous sense of adventure.--Thompson, Sarah Bean Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
IN LEN VLAHOS'S debut novel, the Scar Boys are a punk band from Yonkers that hits the road riding a rusty van and working out personal problems while playing gigs in college towns as far south as Georgia. "Music to the rescue," muses Harry, the book's narrator. Playing and touring demand creativity and commitment, forcing the Scar Boys - actually three guys and a girl - to come of age in this wry, stylish tale. There are no American idols here, not even an Internet, so the mid-1980s setting - which includes CBGB - might feel prehistoric to contemporary young adult readers. But clubs and technology come and go. Music is forever. Harry (formally Harbinger Robert Francis Jones) was burned during a lightning storm as a kid and grew up with a wrecked face, zero friends in middle school and a deep, dark fear of the world. After he meets the gifted, charismatic Johnny, they play every LP they can get their hands on. "We should start a band," Johnny says. To Harry, "it was like a magic phrase - abracadabra, hocus-pocus and open sesame all rolled into one." Harry struggles with a hovering mother and a father who alternates between overbearing and incompetent while flashing unexpected bursts of affection at a son he doesn't understand. Harry's dad and Johnny, the band's ambitious lead singer - a loyal friend, and at the same time a bit of a self-serving rat - are the most original and satisfying characters. With Richie, the blue-collar drummer, and Cheyenne, who plays an edgy and spirited bass guitar, all four Scar Boys are well-etched original characters. But though they're talented and hardworking, the band isn't ever going to be discovered; they discover themselves, and one another, during their sub-rockstar summer on the road. IN WOLFGANG HERRNDORF'S "Why We Took the Car," originally published in German and ably translated by Tim Mohr, the title question never really gets answered. And the two teenage boys who take the car - a beat-up Lada - on a summer road trip across Germany don't really know why they do it, exactly. Which seems about right, for two high-spirited social misfits stuck in the German equivalent of a big-city junior high. Their trip is all about getting away - from damaged parents, from unpopularity, from hectoring teachers. There's a lot to run from and no clear direction in which to travel. The narrator, Mike Klingenberg, lives in an apartment with a mother befuddled by booze and a real-estate-developer dad who's on the road himself - with his college-age secretary. Mike's partner in crime is Andrej Tschichatschow, known as Tschick, a Russian immigrant who some mornings leaves "a vapor trail of alcohol" in his wake. Tschick and Mike are perhaps the most uncool kids in school, certainly not cool enough to be invited to pretty Tatiana's birthday party. That's reason enough for Tschick to grab the semi-abandoned Lada, for Mike to pocket 200 euros left by his disappeared dad and for both guys to hit the road. Because they haven't a clue where they're going, they call their destination "Wallachia," actually a region of Romania, but shorthand for Hicksville, nowheresville, the end of the road. By no means a wholesome story, "Why We Took the Car" is exuberant and without a mean bone in its narrative. American teenagers shouldn't have trouble relating to Mike and Tschick, recognizable characters from the universal school of teenage angst. The autobahns of Germany have, from Herrndorf's point of view, a lot in common with the interstates of, say, Kansas: fast-food restaurants, truck stops, blurred towns. The liveliness and charm of the two boys carry the reader along, until at last Mike taps into the real lessons of the road: that it never ends. "I was overcome with a strange feeling. It was a feeling of bliss, a feeling of invincibility. No accident, no authority, no law of nature could stop us. We were on the road and we would always be on the road." PETER BEHRENS'S most recent novel is "The O'Briens." He blogs about roads and road trips at autoliterate.blogspot.com.