The Car

Plot

Fourteen-year-old Terry Anders is a 1990s Huck Finn, with parents as neglectful as "Pap." Like Huck he escapes, not on a raft but by constructing a kit car. He takes his red Blakely Bearcat out to the highway and points it west, intending to leave his home in Cleveland for Oregon, where he hopes to find the uncle he only vaguely remembers. Long before he reaches his destination, Terry meets up with a middle-aged wanderer named Waylon, who introduces him to his old friend, the free-living Wayne. The pair, Vietnam vets, lead the young protagonist on a string of impromptu adventures and eventually become his mentors, introducing him to the history, hypocrisy and beauty of his country