The Last Open Road

A masterful and hilarious novel of open road sports car racing and falling in love with the boss’s niece in 1950s AmericaIn his first novel, Burt Levy captures the atmosphere of a more innocent era in America, the early ‘50s – a time when the horizon seemed open and anything was possible, when enthusiasts raced European sports cars in open-road races in Bridgehampton, Elkhart Lake, and Watkins Glen, races that crackled with excitement, fun, adventure, and an omnipresent danger.

Levy tells the story of Buddy Palumbo – a year out of high school and working as a mechanic at the Sinclair station in Passaic, New Jersey – as he discovers the twin loves of his life: Miss Julie Finzio and sports car racing. Surrounded by a Dickensian cast of characters exuberant with life, Buddy is caught up in a series of adventures that rival those of Augie March – as he learns what it means to be a man in an America that seems almost unrecognizable today.

Fast-paced, funny, and utterly absorbing, Buddy Palumbo’s story will enchant readers with a vision of being young in America’s last age of innocence.