English, Scottish, & Welsh Fiction, Women's Fiction, European Peoples & Cultures - Fiction & Literature
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Overview
Veronique, an insouciant young Parisian, has an argument with her boyfriend, a self-consciously cerebral experimental musician, after he premieres the latest opus from his band, The Sofia Experimental Bread Octet, in his shabby living room. Pissed-off, exhausted by his claims of genius, and slightly tipsy, Veronique snatches the keys to her white Fiat Uno, her best friend Estelle, and takes off into the very French night. What ensues includes, but by no means is limited to, Sex, Death, hostile road driving, soft rock, homing pigeons, and international incidents of the most sinister class. Featuring a pair of heroines as ripe and camera-ready as Contemporary America could hope for, The Little White Car is a buddy-novel that would make Tarantino weep with gratitude. It will also be a must-read for foreign car mechanics everywhere.Editorials
Jonathan Yardley
It's a clever (and more than slightly irreverent) conceit upon which to construct a novel, but Dan/Danuta brings it off, in the process sending up chick lit and just about anything else that crosses the screen.— The Washington Post
Kirkus Reviews
In a madcap romp through the back alleys of Paris, de Rhodes introduces us to a slacker bohemian who may have killed Princess Diana. . . . In a kind of Parisian Evelyn Waugh with sex, de Rhodes manages to create a Gallic universe of Bright Young Things set loose upon the world. Vive la difference!Publishers Weekly
How's this for a night out? You drink yourself silly, dump your experimental-music- loving stoner boyfriend, get in your parent's car and promptly kill a princess with it. But don't worry, you're beautiful and French: everything will work out just fine. Such is the lesson in this frothy, muzzy, comic caper by de Rhodes, a putative child prodigy ("She started writing features for fashion magazines at the age of twelve....") but actually the pseudonym of Dan Rhodes, author of the much-ballyhooed Timoleon Vieta Come Home. After waking with a hangover and the terrible knowledge that she caused Princess Diana's car crash, Veronique realizes that something must be done. So she goes to see her friend Estelle, a gorgeous, pansexual heartbreaker with a fondness for obscure Welsh poetry, confesses and gets drunk. But she can do better than that! Soon a scheme emerges, which involves the gradual disassembly of the car (which the police are looking for) into bits small enough to dump in public trash cans. But where to get the money for a new car? Stealing and selling the ex's stereo didn't net nearly enough-should Veronique get paid for having her toe amputated and sewn back on by a med student? Trials and tribulations abound, but these beauties will triumph in a novel that's as fun and as fast as a little white Porsche. Agent, Canongate Books (U.K.). 6-city author tour. (Sept. 8) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.Book Details
Published
September 1, 2004
Publisher
Canongate Books
Pages
262
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9781841955896