[amazon_link id=”B000H2M7OI” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Title : Alison’s Automotive Repair Manual
Author : Brad Barkley
Genre : Contemporary
Publisher : St. Martin’s Press
Pages: 288
Source : Netgalley / Publisher ARC
Rating : 3/5

Alison Durst lives with her sister Sarah and brother-in-law Bill as she attempts to recover from the death of her husband Marty, two years ago. Family, friends, ex-co-workers (Alison used to be a teacher at the community college) exhort her to move on, but Alison seems to be stuck, unable to move beyond the stage of shell-shocked bereavement. To get them off her back, and to set some kind of hard goal before herself, Alison decides to set about restoring the 1976 Corvette which sits unused and dilapidated in Bill’s garage. Once the restoration is complete she decides, it will be time to move on with her life.

Alison of course does not know the first thing about car repair, but with a manual at hand, and advice from the local automotive store (manned by a preacher-mechanic, who plies her with pamphlets about the Lord’s word along with car-parts), she starts to potter around.Things take a turn for the romantic when munitions expert Max Kesler makes an appearance and starts to casually assist her with her car repairs after warning her that the project is foolhardy.

I picked up this book expecting a romance, but it turned out to be a subtle look at life in a close-knit community. Sarah is a dance teacher, and we get a good look at all the senior folk who make up the dance class and their quirks and problems. Then there are Sarah and Bill themselves, with Bill desperately wanting a baby. Each of these characters is dealt with realistically, displaying facets the author wishes to portray of human life – the highs, the lows and the in-betweens. There is a realm between stark truth and everyday pretense that we inhabit, infusing our days with little white lies that we listen to and tell, and Barkley skillfully underscores this fact with his careful narration.

The book is told in the third person from Alison’s point of view. Each chapter starts off with some advice from Alison’s repair manual. I’m quite impressed that Barkley manages to write from a woman’s point of view so well; if I hadn’t know that the author was a man, I would have guessed quite the opposite. There is humor in this book, and hopelessness and grief – it all seems very relatable; they are people like us. However I didn’t always connect with Alison, though I sympathized with her. The book moved at a very, very slow pace for me, although to be fair, for this genre, it might not have worked as well as it did, had it rushed through; some things just take time.

A decent read, this one’s for you if you are into deep, life-affirming journeys of healing and hope.