Dogwood Afternoons: A Novel

by Kim Chapin

Overview

Dogwood Afternoons is the story of Andrew Mavis, a young race-car driver. Mavis is testing his car on a new superspeedway, running practice laps against his boyhood friend and rival, Wynn Tatum, as they vie with each other for a job with a factory racing team. It soon becomes clear that it is Mavis himself who is being tested: by his car, to be sure, but also by the twists and shadings of his memory.

Dogwood Afternoons is a novel about memory, fate, and obsession. There are two narratives in the book: the first takes place in the present and is, for the most part, Andrew's interior monologue as he drives. The second part of the novel is his life--his memories of the small-town Southern world in which he grew up, of his stern silent father Wylie, of the world of boot-leggers and moonshiners, of his women, and, above all else, of his remorseless infatuation with cars.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466805651
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	10/01/1985
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	256 KB

About the Author

Kim Chapin was born in Bay City, Michigan, in 1942. Chapin is also the author of a critically acclaimed non-fiction book on stock-car racing, Fast as White Lightning. He lives with his wife and two children in Washington, D.C.

Kim Chapin was born in Bay City, Michigan, in 1942. In addition to the novel Dogwood Afternoons, Chapin is also the author of a critically acclaimed nonfiction book on stock car racing, Fast as White Lightning. He lives with his wife and two children in Washington, D.C.