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The Red Car
In her “dry, delightful fairy tale for grown-ups” (People), celebrated novelist Marcy Dermansky offers a biting exploration of a woman’s search for self-realization and models of a life well lived. When Leah’s former boss and mentor, Judy, dies in an accident and leaves Leah her most prized possession—a flashy red sports car—the shock forces Leah to reevaluate her whole life. Leah is living in Queens with a husband she doesn’t love and a list of unfulfilled ambitions. Returning to San Francisco to claim the mysteriously powerful car, she revisits past lives and loves in several sprawling days colored by sex and sorrow.
Dermansky evokes an edgy, capricious, and beautifully haunting heroine—one whose search for realization is as wonderfully unpredictable and hypnotic as the twists and turns of the Pacific Coast Highway. Tautly wound, transgressive, and mordantly funny, The Red Car is an incisive exploration of one woman’s unusual route to self-discovery.
Dermansky evokes an edgy, capricious, and beautifully haunting heroine—one whose search for realization is as wonderfully unpredictable and hypnotic as the twists and turns of the Pacific Coast Highway. Tautly wound, transgressive, and mordantly funny, The Red Car is an incisive exploration of one woman’s unusual route to self-discovery.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published October 16, 2016
About the author
Marcy Dermansky
8 books29.1k followersMarcy Dermansky is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Hurricane Girl, Very Nice, The Red Car, Bad Marie and Twins. Her new novel Hot Air will be released in the spring of 2025.
Marcy has received fellowships from MacDowell and The Edward Albee Foundation. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey with her daughter.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 457 reviews
April 26, 2016
I've been waiting and waiting for a new book from Marcy Dermansky and finally that new book is here. The Red Car is taut and smart and strange and sweet and perfect. I want to eat this book or sew it to my skin or something.
August 28, 2022
Enigmatic in the very best of ways. Leah, thirty-something, is a writer. Pity she couldn't have written the plot and characters for her own life, as she is not particularly pleased with the way it is going. Saddled with a smothering husband she doesn't love, adrift in a situation in which too much is expected of her. A sudden death results in Leah being able to take off across the country, alone for once. She has a funeral to attend. Advice to heed or ignore, signs to follow.
I am finding it almost impossible to write a decent review of this. Not sure what I can say that will encourage others to read it, or that doesn't give away too much. After reading this author's Hurricane Girl, I couldn't get my hands on another novel of hers fast enough. No disappointment here. Still and yet, it is just odd enough that not everyone is going to be a fan.
I am finding it almost impossible to write a decent review of this. Not sure what I can say that will encourage others to read it, or that doesn't give away too much. After reading this author's Hurricane Girl, I couldn't get my hands on another novel of hers fast enough. No disappointment here. Still and yet, it is just odd enough that not everyone is going to be a fan.
January 30, 2019
Everything about this book is magical to me. There is such a buoyant quality to this prose, and such a candor in the narrative voice. The story is flatly told but full of surprise. It explains very little and apologizes for nothing. The protagonist is without agency, yielding, being acted on continuously by others rather than making her own conscious decisions. I ended up feeling completely enveloped in this character--as I read, I was her. She is someone who is obsessively observant of other people, and of her environment. She can record her actions and her emotions meticulously but she is never in charge of them--they happen to her. I think that writing such a yielding character must be very difficult but here it feels effortless. The prose is so bare and simple that it's easy not to realize how masterfully composed it is.
December 17, 2022
so much upends
around
a red car
haunted
hard with sun
striking
beside a woman
lost.
Please don’t mistake my playfulness for the assumption that I think I write poetry: William Carlos Williams’ compact poem came to mind when I closed this book, so I went with it.
Not as dazzling a work as Hurricane Girl, but still so much fun, The Red Car is also a journey, literally and figuratively, of a woman who willingly walks through open doors. One of my favorite things in both Dermansky books is how curious the protagonists are, and how curiosity propels them. In this case she is Leah, 23, then 33. At 33, her life is stable, and when her past beckons, she can’t help but answer the call.
The two cities I know best are New York, where I was born and raised, and San Fransisco, where I’ve worked, and played with my two best friends. This book takes place in both cities, and I enjoyed the specific nods to each.
The writing comes from inside Leah’s head in short, propulsive sentences that quickly expose how inner conflict can emerge. In Hurricane Girl, this was tighter and funnier, Dermansky’s style at its pinnacle, but all the fodder is here. Overall, this was a more realistic story, and more relatable for me, apart from the ghostly red car. If I started Dermansky here, I don’t know that I would feel the hunger I do to ingest all of her work, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable ride that is driving me to read another, and soon.
around
a red car
haunted
hard with sun
striking
beside a woman
lost.
Please don’t mistake my playfulness for the assumption that I think I write poetry: William Carlos Williams’ compact poem came to mind when I closed this book, so I went with it.
Not as dazzling a work as Hurricane Girl, but still so much fun, The Red Car is also a journey, literally and figuratively, of a woman who willingly walks through open doors. One of my favorite things in both Dermansky books is how curious the protagonists are, and how curiosity propels them. In this case she is Leah, 23, then 33. At 33, her life is stable, and when her past beckons, she can’t help but answer the call.
The two cities I know best are New York, where I was born and raised, and San Fransisco, where I’ve worked, and played with my two best friends. This book takes place in both cities, and I enjoyed the specific nods to each.
The writing comes from inside Leah’s head in short, propulsive sentences that quickly expose how inner conflict can emerge. In Hurricane Girl, this was tighter and funnier, Dermansky’s style at its pinnacle, but all the fodder is here. Overall, this was a more realistic story, and more relatable for me, apart from the ghostly red car. If I started Dermansky here, I don’t know that I would feel the hunger I do to ingest all of her work, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable ride that is driving me to read another, and soon.
July 26, 2022
Library overdrive Audiobook….read by Soneela Nankani
…..5 hours and 46 minutes
I had so much fun listening to “The Hurricane Girl”, by Marcy Dermansky —that I dived into another one of her books.
Marcy Dermansky cracked me up - [again] - with “The Red Car”….
….with her crazy-nutty-refreshingly funny-smart&savvy-weirdly strange—surreal—but convincingly emotional heartfelt —novel.
Leah was living in Queens with her husband Hans. (Hans and Leah’s relationship is a story in itself)….she doesn’t love him — or his Pai Thai noodles….but let’s leave those details alone for now….
We have a juicer tale to follow than Leah’s ridiculously numbing ‘green card’ relationship with Hans (note: both were writers though—yet had little in common)…..
Leah got an unexpected phone call (from Diego) that her old friend, Judy, had died in a car accident…
….Judy died in her prized possession Red Sports Car…..
and left the car to Leah. (not a prize to Leah)….
Leah hadn’t seen Judy for ten years —but Judy had been influential in Leah’s life at one time.
Judy acted as a type of mentor of sorts. She ‘was’ Leah’s boss, but boundaries were a blur due to their friendship.
Judy and Leah may have had differences of opinions—but Judy dominated those opinions with her critical interest in Leah’s love life and her career path.
Judy’s voice overpowered both in life and death.
Leah is often found talking ‘back’ to her dead friend Judy….as Judy was still dishing out advice.
Leah receives a fully ‘paid-for’ plane ticket from Diego (the company was paying) — to fly to San Francisco to attend the funeral: two week stay.
Diego would pick Leah up at the airport …(we get to know about Diego and Leah’s past and present entanglement relationship too)…
From the new black dress Leah buys at Macy’s Union Square in San Francisco—to the old friends she hooks up with in the Castro district— to Leah’s dream for a stainless steel refrigerator— to her (was it cheating?) one time hookup with a woman — to her ‘red car’ drive to Palo Alto (to visit more friends)…to Leah’s niece’s Bat Mitzvah…
…..”The Red Car” is a novel with style and moxie…..
I’d love to hang out with Marcy Dermansky for a day.
This boisterous novel was exactly what Judy said to Leah:
“I am giving you an adventure. I have given you a roadmap. I am giving you a car”….
The ending leaves the reader with thoughts to contemplate about the psychology of gift giving.
Loved it.
…..5 hours and 46 minutes
I had so much fun listening to “The Hurricane Girl”, by Marcy Dermansky —that I dived into another one of her books.
Marcy Dermansky cracked me up - [again] - with “The Red Car”….
….with her crazy-nutty-refreshingly funny-smart&savvy-weirdly strange—surreal—but convincingly emotional heartfelt —novel.
Leah was living in Queens with her husband Hans. (Hans and Leah’s relationship is a story in itself)….she doesn’t love him — or his Pai Thai noodles….but let’s leave those details alone for now….
We have a juicer tale to follow than Leah’s ridiculously numbing ‘green card’ relationship with Hans (note: both were writers though—yet had little in common)…..
Leah got an unexpected phone call (from Diego) that her old friend, Judy, had died in a car accident…
….Judy died in her prized possession Red Sports Car…..
and left the car to Leah. (not a prize to Leah)….
Leah hadn’t seen Judy for ten years —but Judy had been influential in Leah’s life at one time.
Judy acted as a type of mentor of sorts. She ‘was’ Leah’s boss, but boundaries were a blur due to their friendship.
Judy and Leah may have had differences of opinions—but Judy dominated those opinions with her critical interest in Leah’s love life and her career path.
Judy’s voice overpowered both in life and death.
Leah is often found talking ‘back’ to her dead friend Judy….as Judy was still dishing out advice.
Leah receives a fully ‘paid-for’ plane ticket from Diego (the company was paying) — to fly to San Francisco to attend the funeral: two week stay.
Diego would pick Leah up at the airport …(we get to know about Diego and Leah’s past and present entanglement relationship too)…
From the new black dress Leah buys at Macy’s Union Square in San Francisco—to the old friends she hooks up with in the Castro district— to Leah’s dream for a stainless steel refrigerator— to her (was it cheating?) one time hookup with a woman — to her ‘red car’ drive to Palo Alto (to visit more friends)…to Leah’s niece’s Bat Mitzvah…
…..”The Red Car” is a novel with style and moxie…..
I’d love to hang out with Marcy Dermansky for a day.
This boisterous novel was exactly what Judy said to Leah:
“I am giving you an adventure. I have given you a roadmap. I am giving you a car”….
The ending leaves the reader with thoughts to contemplate about the psychology of gift giving.
Loved it.
September 24, 2016
3.5 stars. The Red Car was on the weird side, but mostly weird in a good way. Leah is a writer in her early thirties. Her former boss Judy dies, and leaves her a red sports car. The rest of the book focuses on Leah's odd trip from New York to the west coast to attend Judy's funeral and claim the car. There's a very light touch of surrealism to the story. But the predominant feel is a deadpan narrative style focused on Leah's state of mind and seemingly random choices and encounters. This will not be everyone's cup of tea -- Leah is not particularly likeable or sympathetic. But I liked the sensibility of The Red Car -- it reminded me a bit of Vendela Vida's fiction -- somewhat defiant of literary conventions or conventional expectations but still grounded in recognizable human emotions. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.
April 8, 2023
The Red Car by Marcy Dermansky may be the best book I've read in a while. Published in 2016, this short novel made me laugh more often and at greater volume than I did reading Dermansky's previous two novels, which is saying something. Rather than a coming-of-age story or femme fatale story, The Red Car is about a woman who seems to have checked the boxes of adulthood: a college education, marriage, a job she can do from home and even the completion of a novel. Closer inspection reveals she's anything but okay and the way the author edges her out onto a tightrope made for a harrowing read.
The story is the first-person account of Leah Kaplan, introduced as a twenty-three-year-old executive assistant to the Human Resources director of a state university in San Francisco. Leah wants to be a writer and while she looks down at office workers, her boss recognized Leah's value as a confidant and friend. Her boss is Judy, a divorcée twenty years Leah's senior whose preference for direct communication doesn't seem to intimidate Leah the way it does others. A platonic love develops between the women but ultimately, Judy encourages Leah to quit her job and go back to school.
Ten years later, Leah is living in Queens with her husband Hans, a writer she met at graduate school and married because his student visa was expiring. She tells herself that he's thoughtful and loves her in spite of his codependency and hot temper. Then an email arrives from a former coworker notifying her that Judy has been killed, slammed into while driving the red car she cherished. Leah learns that Judy has left her that car, as well as a letter and some money. When an attractive former coworker puts her airfare on the company credit card, Leah returns to San Francisco for two weeks. She begins to hear Judy's voice, or perhaps her own voice, speaking to her.
"You shouldn't always believe the things you tell yourself," Judy said.
Judy, there she was again. Talking to me. I did not understand it. I could hear the timbre of her voice, the inflection, but, of course, no one else could hear her. And I didn't actually believe that she was actually talking to me. For years, when I started graduate school, and then, when I moved to New York, I could hear Judy talking to me, giving me advice, taking note of my decisions and offering her approval. Her disapproval. But it stopped once I had gotten married. I gradually stopped sending her emails and I could not hear her voice. She was gone. The stupid thing was that it was not until after I learned that she had died that I realized that I missed her.
"Pretty stupid," Judy observed.
In the hands of a lot of other authors--those who write books with cute, comforting illustrated covers--The Red Car would've been another novel about a major life event that pulls a woman back to her old neighborhood, her old friends and an old romance she might rekindle, all while processing where she wants to go next in her life. And strangely enough, this book checks most of those boxes. There's a moment where Leah walks by her old apartment in the Mission District and not only meets the woman now occupying her old room, but a woman also writing a novel who nearly shares the same first name. They become intimate, but it's a relationship not built to last.
"You see," Judy said.
But I did not know what she meant.
You see, you are writing?
I knew I was a writer. I knew I had written a book and I even knew that it was probably good. I just wanted to keep that quiet. Make sure. Protect myself from disappointment.
You see, you are a lesbian?
You see, you should have never gotten married?
You see, you should have never left San Francisco?
It worried me that I did not understand Judy's chiding. If the voice was coming from me, wouldn't I understand my own meaning? I bit the back end of my black pen, which burst onto my hand. I used a napkin to contain the ink.
"You're pretty," the other Lea said. She had stopped writing. She was appraising me. I wondered for how long. My fingers were covered in black ink.
"You have a girlfriend," I said.
"Damn," Lea laughed.
What I loved about The Red Car is the illusory filter that Dermansky applies to everything from the sex to the conversation to the red car. I was convinced that Leah had died on her way to San Francisco and everything there was occurring in her afterlife. The events developing around Leah are at times distant and odd but her irreverence and self-doubt comes through so strong that it gave me something to chomp down on. And as corny as it sounds, this book helped me believe in myself, to stop listening to negative voices in my head and write my book. I read this in about 24 hours but wish my time with Leah had lasted a lot longer.
The story is the first-person account of Leah Kaplan, introduced as a twenty-three-year-old executive assistant to the Human Resources director of a state university in San Francisco. Leah wants to be a writer and while she looks down at office workers, her boss recognized Leah's value as a confidant and friend. Her boss is Judy, a divorcée twenty years Leah's senior whose preference for direct communication doesn't seem to intimidate Leah the way it does others. A platonic love develops between the women but ultimately, Judy encourages Leah to quit her job and go back to school.
Ten years later, Leah is living in Queens with her husband Hans, a writer she met at graduate school and married because his student visa was expiring. She tells herself that he's thoughtful and loves her in spite of his codependency and hot temper. Then an email arrives from a former coworker notifying her that Judy has been killed, slammed into while driving the red car she cherished. Leah learns that Judy has left her that car, as well as a letter and some money. When an attractive former coworker puts her airfare on the company credit card, Leah returns to San Francisco for two weeks. She begins to hear Judy's voice, or perhaps her own voice, speaking to her.
"You shouldn't always believe the things you tell yourself," Judy said.
Judy, there she was again. Talking to me. I did not understand it. I could hear the timbre of her voice, the inflection, but, of course, no one else could hear her. And I didn't actually believe that she was actually talking to me. For years, when I started graduate school, and then, when I moved to New York, I could hear Judy talking to me, giving me advice, taking note of my decisions and offering her approval. Her disapproval. But it stopped once I had gotten married. I gradually stopped sending her emails and I could not hear her voice. She was gone. The stupid thing was that it was not until after I learned that she had died that I realized that I missed her.
"Pretty stupid," Judy observed.
In the hands of a lot of other authors--those who write books with cute, comforting illustrated covers--The Red Car would've been another novel about a major life event that pulls a woman back to her old neighborhood, her old friends and an old romance she might rekindle, all while processing where she wants to go next in her life. And strangely enough, this book checks most of those boxes. There's a moment where Leah walks by her old apartment in the Mission District and not only meets the woman now occupying her old room, but a woman also writing a novel who nearly shares the same first name. They become intimate, but it's a relationship not built to last.
"You see," Judy said.
But I did not know what she meant.
You see, you are writing?
I knew I was a writer. I knew I had written a book and I even knew that it was probably good. I just wanted to keep that quiet. Make sure. Protect myself from disappointment.
You see, you are a lesbian?
You see, you should have never gotten married?
You see, you should have never left San Francisco?
It worried me that I did not understand Judy's chiding. If the voice was coming from me, wouldn't I understand my own meaning? I bit the back end of my black pen, which burst onto my hand. I used a napkin to contain the ink.
"You're pretty," the other Lea said. She had stopped writing. She was appraising me. I wondered for how long. My fingers were covered in black ink.
"You have a girlfriend," I said.
"Damn," Lea laughed.
What I loved about The Red Car is the illusory filter that Dermansky applies to everything from the sex to the conversation to the red car. I was convinced that Leah had died on her way to San Francisco and everything there was occurring in her afterlife. The events developing around Leah are at times distant and odd but her irreverence and self-doubt comes through so strong that it gave me something to chomp down on. And as corny as it sounds, this book helped me believe in myself, to stop listening to negative voices in my head and write my book. I read this in about 24 hours but wish my time with Leah had lasted a lot longer.
December 5, 2016
I really enjoyed this book, just sat and read all 200 pages without a break. I was a bit deterred by the comparison to Miranda July and Maria Semple, both authors I feel I am supposed to like, but when faced with their characters I feel too far on the outside. In this case, the central character of Leah makes perhaps socially inept choices but I understood them. The author shows us her thought process and somehow her ways make sense, despite her life being rather small and unsatisfying. The death of her former boss sets a bunch of events in motion, and it is not clear how they will end up. Leah could return to her life as it was, but maybe she shouldn't.
I like Leah for how she makes decisions, jumping into situations most people would not find themselves in. I like Leah for how she refuses to do as she is expected just because it is expected. I loved the humor (one moment I remember her complaining about sex in books and the next few pages are sex) and the bizarro voice of Judy.
I like Leah for how she makes decisions, jumping into situations most people would not find themselves in. I like Leah for how she refuses to do as she is expected just because it is expected. I loved the humor (one moment I remember her complaining about sex in books and the next few pages are sex) and the bizarro voice of Judy.
October 19, 2023
I was looking for Hurricane Girl on Internet Archive; they had her earlier two novels, and this one from 2017. A Bit Lame - is how I see this.
Our narrator begins her story aged 20?, she's at uni. She skips 10 years and then another 6 years - background- to give us an idea of her and her life. As she's narrating the current story I think she must be about 35/36; and I feel a little puzzled. Is this woman 36 or 16? I thought maybe she's a little on the autism spectrum? And then I thought if she isn't autistic, why does she feel Life should be laid out, in an obvious path, like Dorothy I suppose, skipping down that yellow road?
I liked the narrator up to the two-third point. I suspect because it feels fairly genuine, based on the author's real experiences? That comes across, and then there is a sequence of moronic conversations between "sweetie," I forget her name, her friend Margaret, who is at Stanford and M's boyfriend - who is the coloured offering in her white middle-class privileged world and at this point, I just felt annoyed. Get your book published, leave your moronic husband, make a decision, stop moaning, get a life girl . . . those are my instructions!
No, really - I'm not sure why this has been published - harsh?
Our narrator begins her story aged 20?, she's at uni. She skips 10 years and then another 6 years - background- to give us an idea of her and her life. As she's narrating the current story I think she must be about 35/36; and I feel a little puzzled. Is this woman 36 or 16? I thought maybe she's a little on the autism spectrum? And then I thought if she isn't autistic, why does she feel Life should be laid out, in an obvious path, like Dorothy I suppose, skipping down that yellow road?
I liked the narrator up to the two-third point. I suspect because it feels fairly genuine, based on the author's real experiences? That comes across, and then there is a sequence of moronic conversations between "sweetie," I forget her name, her friend Margaret, who is at Stanford and M's boyfriend - who is the coloured offering in her white middle-class privileged world and at this point, I just felt annoyed. Get your book published, leave your moronic husband, make a decision, stop moaning, get a life girl . . . those are my instructions!
No, really - I'm not sure why this has been published - harsh?
May 7, 2016
My god, what a ride this was! Gorgeously written and perfectly paced. A book has to be tightly controlled to succeed at this brief length, but it doesn't feel controlled or contrived. It unspools so naturally and inevitably, without ever being predictable. I loved it.
January 6, 2017
I suspect this is another of those books that to me falls into the category of the Emperor's new clothes. No one is brave enough to tell the Emperor that he is truly naked, except for an innocent child who finally announces that the Emperor has got no clothes on. I feel this way about a lot of books, that the hype has created the idea that this book (and many others) are amazing and great and wonderful, and so most people fall in line with that idea because they don't want to come across as less educated or less smart.
I'm going to be that innocent child and disagree with all these rave reviews. I'm not even sure what this book is about. In general, it's almost a coming-of-age tale, since Leah is stuck in a life she can't abide with a husband she doesn't even like, whom she married just so he can remain in the States. Yet after her former boss Judy dies, whom she hasn't interacted with in several years, Leah flies all the way across the country to attend her funeral, where she learns she's also inherited the car in which Judy died. From then Leah goes on a bit of a journey in the red car (after it miraculously healed itself at the car repair shop [?!?!?]), meeting up with several people from her past.
But generally with these sorts of tales, the protagonist learns something about herself. She changes, she grows, she comes of age. Yet Leah doesn't really learn anything or change anything about her life, except that she realizes she doesn't have to return to her abusive Austrian husband. The story itself is just a meandering tale of pretty much nothingness. Leah has a lesbian encounter with a woman she met on the street with the same name who lives in the same room she did when she lived in San Francisco with the same roommates that Leah had had (and here one really needs to suspend disbelief), and she also has a sexual encounter with a former coworker even after he had repeatedly turned her down. She's also propositioned for sex by the car repair guy who tells her the red car has fixed itself, but she uses the fact that she's married to turn him down. So basically everyone wants to have sex with Leah.
The story just has so many unbelievable elements. I don't know if Dermansky was going for magical realism or what, but it just comes across as unbelievable. The whole side of Judy's car was smashed in during the accident that killed her, yet the mechanic calls Leah to tell her that the car has somehow healed itself. Then Judy, after her death, becomes a voice in Leah's head that comments on whatever Leah is doing at the moment. Plus the car somehow forces Leah's friend to drive excessively fast on the highway, and it even communicates with Leah. I'm all for suspension of disbelief, but this is just a little much.
It also doesn't help that the writing is so stilted and clunky. I can forgive a lot, but when the writing gets in the way of my getting sucked into the story, it is a total turn-off. And for some reason, Dermansky seems to have something against contractions, which makes her conversations sound like they take place between robots, not actual humans.
As short as this book is, I can't recommend spending one's time on it.
I'm going to be that innocent child and disagree with all these rave reviews. I'm not even sure what this book is about. In general, it's almost a coming-of-age tale, since Leah is stuck in a life she can't abide with a husband she doesn't even like, whom she married just so he can remain in the States. Yet after her former boss Judy dies, whom she hasn't interacted with in several years, Leah flies all the way across the country to attend her funeral, where she learns she's also inherited the car in which Judy died. From then Leah goes on a bit of a journey in the red car (after it miraculously healed itself at the car repair shop [?!?!?]), meeting up with several people from her past.
But generally with these sorts of tales, the protagonist learns something about herself. She changes, she grows, she comes of age. Yet Leah doesn't really learn anything or change anything about her life, except that she realizes she doesn't have to return to her abusive Austrian husband. The story itself is just a meandering tale of pretty much nothingness. Leah has a lesbian encounter with a woman she met on the street with the same name who lives in the same room she did when she lived in San Francisco with the same roommates that Leah had had (and here one really needs to suspend disbelief), and she also has a sexual encounter with a former coworker even after he had repeatedly turned her down. She's also propositioned for sex by the car repair guy who tells her the red car has fixed itself, but she uses the fact that she's married to turn him down. So basically everyone wants to have sex with Leah.
The story just has so many unbelievable elements. I don't know if Dermansky was going for magical realism or what, but it just comes across as unbelievable. The whole side of Judy's car was smashed in during the accident that killed her, yet the mechanic calls Leah to tell her that the car has somehow healed itself. Then Judy, after her death, becomes a voice in Leah's head that comments on whatever Leah is doing at the moment. Plus the car somehow forces Leah's friend to drive excessively fast on the highway, and it even communicates with Leah. I'm all for suspension of disbelief, but this is just a little much.
It also doesn't help that the writing is so stilted and clunky. I can forgive a lot, but when the writing gets in the way of my getting sucked into the story, it is a total turn-off. And for some reason, Dermansky seems to have something against contractions, which makes her conversations sound like they take place between robots, not actual humans.
As short as this book is, I can't recommend spending one's time on it.
November 6, 2022
I’m not sure I’d have thought of Haruki Murakami if he had not been referenced in this surreal quest novel, but as soon as protagonist Leah said his name, I thought aha, that’s what this is.
Leah flees her husband in New York City without really knowing what she’s doing—which could be said of most of Marcy Dermansky’s protagonists. But this time, greater forces seem to guide the woman in question—out-of-this-world forces—in what is essentially a “walkabout” (Murakami’s specialty) where the protagonist doesn’t seem to know where she’s going.
I had no idea where this novel was going, but I very much enjoyed the ride in this crazy red car.
Leah flees her husband in New York City without really knowing what she’s doing—which could be said of most of Marcy Dermansky’s protagonists. But this time, greater forces seem to guide the woman in question—out-of-this-world forces—in what is essentially a “walkabout” (Murakami’s specialty) where the protagonist doesn’t seem to know where she’s going.
I had no idea where this novel was going, but I very much enjoyed the ride in this crazy red car.
September 11, 2016
I think the most impressive thing about The Red Car (and basically EVERYTHING about it is impressive) is how gentle Dermansky's hand on it is. I realize that's a ridiculous thing to say about an author, but in other stories like this once -- a white woman in her 30s dealing with a life she's realized she doesn't love and the choices that got her there -- it often feels as if the writer is dragging the reader through scenes, assembling lessons, and aligning symbols. But The Red Car, somehow, is entirely Leah's story. She is its driving (literally and otherwise) force and, with the lightest of touches, Dermansky guides her, crafting each scene so goddamn perfectly that each and every moment is convincing and every bit of humor a pure delight. As a reader, you never, ever want the adventure to end. I feel entirely unequal to the task of writing about a book as great as this one, so it's something I will be mutely hurling insistently at every reader I know the moment it comes out.
Thanks to WW Norton and NetGalley for the chance to read it.
Thanks to WW Norton and NetGalley for the chance to read it.
December 21, 2017
What a lovely surprise! The Red Car is a sparkling, smart and funny novel. I enjoyed every page - I just wish it was longer.
September 20, 2019
Such an interesting book!
April 4, 2023
This one needed to be at least fifty pages longer to get to the level of brilliance of Hurricane Girl and Bad Marie.
October 19, 2016
The fact that I was able to start and finish and enjoy The Red Car is something. Dermansky is not really my kind of writer. I have never been much for the kind of meandering narrative of a directionless protagonist. And yet I read this one in a relatively short time. But, of course, eventually I started waiting for it to come together or mean something and the thing about this book is that it never does. And I am not the right reader for it, as much as I may wish I could be. But I did enjoy it more than Bad Marie, which I was not able to finish. There was more here that spoke to me even if the whole didn't give me what I wanted.
July 29, 2016
The Red Car is a classic American road story—what more American story is there than “things weren’t working out so well in the east and so I went west?”—but it’s also a brilliant subversion of the road story. It’s a novel of a narrator “finding herself” on the road, complete with sly winks at the macho pursuit of finding oneself in On The Road and Big Sur and at the kind of men who both appear in those books and see themselves in them. The protagonist here makes risky decisions personally, sexually, financially, and driverly, as characters always do in a road story, and even as we race along with her, engaging the novel as the adventure it is, we’re reminded how our expectations and assumptions about such a story of western escape are different because it’s told by and about a woman. Dermansky’s earlier Bad Marie is one of my favorite American novels of recent years because of its darkly comic voice and a momentum of an adventure without the contrivance of a too-artificial plot, and The Red Car shares those qualities while being very much its own book—one I enjoyed immensely both as I read it and as I reflected upon it after the last page.
June 1, 2018
Leah is living in a lackluster Queens apartment with her self-involved husband when she receives word that her friend and former boss has died. Going back to San Francisco, she encounters friends and co-workers from her past as well as meeting a few new people. She also inherits the car her boss died in, a speedy vehicle that frightens Leah, along with her boss's voice in her head.
What is lost in the summary is how very What an odd and perfect book this is. Marcy Dermansky manages to pack so much depth into this slim novel, and I was so sorry when I turned the final page and was finished with it. Leah's voice is so immediate that there was no way to avoid experiencing the book though her eyes, and over the course of the novel, I began to understand her reactions to events (which was very different than what my own reactions would have been).
What is lost in the summary is how very What an odd and perfect book this is. Marcy Dermansky manages to pack so much depth into this slim novel, and I was so sorry when I turned the final page and was finished with it. Leah's voice is so immediate that there was no way to avoid experiencing the book though her eyes, and over the course of the novel, I began to understand her reactions to events (which was very different than what my own reactions would have been).
August 21, 2016
This book grabbed me from the first page, and never let go. The events, though almost mundane on their face, take on a mythical quality in Dermansky's hands; she has the ability to make plain, clear utterances more than the sum of their parts, and run a shiver of electricity underneath her story, only occasionally letting it spark up into view. If that doesn't sound good, it is. It is very, very good.
June 17, 2017
I love Dermansky's surreal prose. This is a simple story, one that could have been told from a hundred different angles. I loved the way she chose to tell it. I loved how her use of language created the tone of drifting and uncertainty and re-creating yourself in the midst of emotional chaos.
July 26, 2016
I'll read this one again.
I love Dermansky's voice and will read anything/everything she writes.
I love Dermansky's voice and will read anything/everything she writes.
March 28, 2023
My only issue with Marcy Dermansky is that her books are too short!! Loved this one.
November 4, 2016
[4.5]
The Red Car was totally not what I expected. Honestly, the publisher blurb makes it sound like a borderline Eat Pray Love journey of self discovery featuring a constant soundtrack of Natasha Bedingfield. Luckily for us, that is SO not what this book is. It is much weirder than that. If you like the straight forward, quirky, honest sense of humor of Miranda July and/or the sparse, powerful writing of Lydia Davis, this is the book for you. And that's exactly why it was the book for me.
I don't want to say much about the plot. Leah had a boss who she had a close bond with, then Leah moved away. Her boss, Judy, wanted her to succeed. Leah ends up married to an awful guy who seems benign and she is mostly complacent. She hadn't spoken to Judy in years, and one day she is shocked to find out that Judy is dead. And Judy left her the red car that she loved and that Leah hated (also the car that Judy died in), in addition to something else. A thing happens that makes Leah 100% decide to fly to San Francisco by herself. And then some weird stuff goes down. I WISH I could say more, but I can't. Just know that it is a tightly written story and a quick, enjoyable read. I laughed a lot, I also cried. It's dark. And, again, it's WEIRD. There were some sexy times in the book which is normally horrifying for me (I'm not a prude at all, but sex scenes make me blush too much), but it was done perfectly and never felt gratuitous.
The writing is the best part of this book, and I don't mean that in a bad way like as if other things were lacking. I mean that it was well written on all fronts. Real emotion and thought was evoked. Intelligent, contemporary, and completely on point. I need to read every other word Marcy Dermansky has ever written.
Full Review: Outlandish Lit
The Red Car was totally not what I expected. Honestly, the publisher blurb makes it sound like a borderline Eat Pray Love journey of self discovery featuring a constant soundtrack of Natasha Bedingfield. Luckily for us, that is SO not what this book is. It is much weirder than that. If you like the straight forward, quirky, honest sense of humor of Miranda July and/or the sparse, powerful writing of Lydia Davis, this is the book for you. And that's exactly why it was the book for me.
I don't want to say much about the plot. Leah had a boss who she had a close bond with, then Leah moved away. Her boss, Judy, wanted her to succeed. Leah ends up married to an awful guy who seems benign and she is mostly complacent. She hadn't spoken to Judy in years, and one day she is shocked to find out that Judy is dead. And Judy left her the red car that she loved and that Leah hated (also the car that Judy died in), in addition to something else. A thing happens that makes Leah 100% decide to fly to San Francisco by herself. And then some weird stuff goes down. I WISH I could say more, but I can't. Just know that it is a tightly written story and a quick, enjoyable read. I laughed a lot, I also cried. It's dark. And, again, it's WEIRD. There were some sexy times in the book which is normally horrifying for me (I'm not a prude at all, but sex scenes make me blush too much), but it was done perfectly and never felt gratuitous.
The writing is the best part of this book, and I don't mean that in a bad way like as if other things were lacking. I mean that it was well written on all fronts. Real emotion and thought was evoked. Intelligent, contemporary, and completely on point. I need to read every other word Marcy Dermansky has ever written.
Full Review: Outlandish Lit
February 27, 2018
This is like those novels that were extremely popular a decade ago...Middle aged woman leaves behind her life, and low and behold starts having these spectacular adventures where everyone wants to have sex with them and somehow money doesn't matter. Except in this novel the woman isn't middle aged, but in her early 30's. Her friend dies leaving her a sports car and money. So she can continue on her life path of doing nothing, but writing for a decade (even though she has only published one short story). It all just felt too easy, and not to mention that the author weirdly throws in that the car might be possessed with the spirit of her dead friend. I'm not buying any of it. If this type of story is your kind of thing there are better-written ones.
April 1, 2017
After finishing this book, I found myself wondering just what I had read. My thoughts are that it was a novel about a young lady who didn’t know what she wanted to do with her life. Her early job, current career, and relationships with friends and lovers were all disjointed and unfulfilling. The book meandered through her search for meaning. By the end of the book she still hadn’t found it.
This novel had received much praise. I just don’t agree with all the positive reviews. I guess that maybe it’s just not my type of book.
This novel had received much praise. I just don’t agree with all the positive reviews. I guess that maybe it’s just not my type of book.
March 13, 2017
What a quirky lovely book. The dialogue is excellent. There is a weird whimsy to it as well (along with some other weirdness). But I really liked it. It was different voice than I normally read and that was pleasing. Quick read and delightful. Actually, inspired me to write.
September 9, 2018
I’m going to need a new Marcy Dermansky book each and every weekend.
November 27, 2016
Reading this book was like taking a ride in a red sports car. Each scene is action packed. Leah seems wild and eccentric in her youth, including agreeing to have sex with the boy who loves her and lives across the hall in the dorm of their prestigious school if he will pay her $200. She read that college girls in Japan did it. Somehow, she settles for less as life goes on until her boss dies and leaves her the little red sports car. Then her journey to find herself takes her across the country with the red car, meeting up with old friends and making new ones, guided by her dead boss Judy's voice encouraging her to take risks, confront her fears, and follow her dreams. The pace and a few mystical elements keep the novel interesting. In a nutshell, it is a novel about a magical red car that kicks a woman who is not living up to her potential right in the butt and gets her moving to find her place in the world.
December 28, 2016
I really loved this book about a woman who is snapped out of her ennui by a phone call that the woman who always believed in her is dead. It takes her on a journey and you can't see the ending coming. It was perfectly paced, smart and funny. At 200 pages, it is a snap to read. So why don't you pick this one up?
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