PaulDorrell57
'Elvis and the Fastback' is a comic/dramatic love story that unfolds during a crazy road trip in Aug 1977-a journey that forever changes the three main characters. Driving a '68 Mustang Fastback like the one in Bullitt, they are each 20, working class, and searching for answers. One is a naive white guy-the narrator-one a smart Mexican-American guy, and the third a streetwise Black woman. Topical and fast-paced, the trip takes my heroes from KC to LA and Vegas then back home, with them experiencing America along the way. There's a cocaine bust in Phoenix, a music industry party at the Chateau Marmont, and dire problems with a Vegas thug. An aging Steve McQueen makes an appearance, as does Richard Nixon, a hitchhiking prophet, a sage old Black woman who deals poker at the Stardust, etc. The Mustang is doomed but my characters are not. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, they must pass some rough tests before returning home. The epilogue jumps to 2026 when the characters are old. One is dying and the other two hope to rekindle their love after a fifty-year separation, with the nation now facing a dystopian future as authoritarians try to take over. All the book clubs call this novel a "page-turner."