- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Random House (Jan 15 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0375506764
- ISBN-13: 978-0375506765
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 13.2 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 340 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,166,473 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
New York City and America's car culture smash together in Calvin Trillin's Tepper Isn't Going Out, a humorous tale of the urban quest for an open parking space. When a mailing-list broker, Murray Tepper, decides to spend his days plugging meters so he can sit in his car reading newspapers and waive off suitors hopeful of gaining his spot, little does he know that his odd behavior (even by New York standards) will set off a media buzz, provide him with cult-hero status, and incur reproach from the paranoid, dour Mayor Frank Ducavelli, who focuses on curtailing Tepper's "abuse" of the parking meter system.
Granted, the plot of this novel is quite thin, but, while not leaving you in stitches, Trillin provokes many smirks and smiles with his wit. For instance, he writes of magazines titled Beautiful Spot: A Magazine of Parking and the potential of Spin: The Magazine of Salad Drying. When Tepper suggests that his friend Jack leave his car's flashers on while parked illegally, Jack responds:
And draw attention to myself? Not a chance. I always park in front of hydrants. The secret is to park smack in front of them rather than just too near them. You have to go all the way. If you're smack in front of them, the cop rolling down the street can't see that there's a hydrant there at all. You have to be brazen. That's my motto, in parking and in life: be brazen.Trillin's book should appeal to commuters and city dwellers everywhere, and anyone else looking for a chuckle. --Michael Ferch
From Publishers Weekly
Trillin is a highly accomplished storyteller as well as a humorist and memoirist, and this oddly titled novel is by far his funniest and sunniest yet. It's a quintessentially New York comedy (and how pleasant to see those words in conjunction again) revolving around Murray Tepper, a quiet, good-humored man whose one oddity is his passion for parking on Manhattan streets. His knowledge of arcane New York parking rules is encyclopedic, and he likes nothing better than to park legally and sit in his car reading the paper. This irritates countless other drivers who think he is about to leave a desirable spot, and the title refers to his quirky determination to stay just where he is. Paradoxically, people begin to gravitate to him, to sit with him in the car and tell him their troubles; they even line up to do so. This in turn irritates the mayor (shades here of pre-crisis Giuliani), who accuses Tepper of fomenting disorder on the streets. Such a conflict becomes the stuff of tabloid headlines, and next, of course, is the offer of a book contract and a TV show. Nothing much happens beyond this, and the plot is resolved with calm good sense, but along the way Trillin captures dozens of pitch-perfect New York moments, in restaurants, in a loutish literary agent's office and in the quaintly old-fashioned business where Tepper works (he runs a mailing-list service and is a genius at perceiving the odd connections between people, where they live and what they buy). Trillin's book is the best tonic for post-September 11 blues imaginable. Agent, Lescher and Lescher, Ltd. 8-city author tour. (Jan. 15).
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
"IT'S ABSOLUTELY UNCONSCIONABLE," THE YOUNG MAN said loudly, shaking a banana in front of the fruit peddler's face. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
"IT'S ABSOLUTELY UNCONSCIONABLE," THE YOUNG MAN said loudly, shaking a banana in front of the fruit peddler's face. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amusing big city satire,
By
This review is from: Tepper Isn't Going Out: A Novel (Paperback)
When someone knows the minutiae of parking laws, times and places, and wants to get the absolute most out of time on the meter, they are definitly from the big city and probably from New York City. To those of us that travel there, it is a confusing set of signposts that may often result in an encounter with NYC Parking Po-lice. To Murray Tepper, it is a well known, well marked (mostly) and well travelled map.Tepper Isn't Going Out is amusing satire, laugh out loud in a few places. Great characterizations (other than Murray himself, the mayor, the pollster, and many of the people on the street) and a plot that borders on ridiculousness while still taking bits and pieces from today's newspaper headlines. Highly recommended, would make a nice read for a long plane ride or weekend vacation.
5.0 out of 5 stars
He's Funny,
By
This review is from: Tepper Isn't Going Out: A Novel (Paperback)
All right, I loved this book. But I have to admit it might be because I'm an ex-New Yorker living in the South. Tepper was such an accurate potrail of an ex-coworker of mine that I could hardly believe it.Anway, it's a lot of fun and I'd recommend it to anybody, but particularly those who have lived in Manhattan and may now be living somewhere else.
4.0 out of 5 stars
An enjoyable enigma,
By The MacGuffin (Alexandria, VA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Tepper Isn't Going Out: A Novel (Paperback)
I read this over the course of an afternoon. Tepper Isn't Going Out is enjoyable, especially if you have ever spent any time in a crowded neighborhood, circling for a parking spot. By the end of the book, however, you will know less about Tepper's penchant for parking and reading the paper than when you start.Calvin Trillin's writing is very dry and witty. There are not a lot of wordplay pyrotechnics or intricate plots or even a lot of characters to keep track of. An enjoyable spin (or park) through a small story that becomes very big.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
