Synopsis
Lori Taylor is a top-notch bicycle mechanic and a smart woman with well-oiled charisma. And, she cannot read. Her best fried Mickey is long on literacy but comes up short in matters of love. The two friends enter into a pact that leads to dangerous emotional territory. But as they negotiate the rough ride of personal growth, the mutual dream that drives them begins to unravel... Working Parts is an exceptional novel that taps the essence of friendship and the potential unleashed when we face our most intense fears.
Library Journal
The title of Bledsoe's first adult novel (following a story collection, Sweat, LJ 10/1/95, and a YA novel, The Big Bike Race, Holiday House, 1995) refers to a mechanic's ordered universe, a self-assured lesbian's sense of women's bodies, and reading, which, like cycling, opens up new worlds. Lori, a brash, likable bike mechanic who can't read, compares coming out as a new reader to coming out as a lesbian, with initial fear giving way to the exhilaration of discovering a community. With humor and sympathy, Bledsoe conveys how hostile the world of books and print looks to an illiterate person. It is not entirely credible that someone with as much self-knowledge as Lori is described as having would act as self-destructively as she does, but this minor quibble does not diminish the pleasure of reading Bledsoe's novel. In addition to its appeal as fiction, this book is important reading for anyone interested in adult literacy. Recommended for all collections.Ina Rimpau, Newark P.L. N.J.