Truck: On Rebuilding a Worn-Out Pickup and Other Post-Technological Adventures | 
 enlarge | Author: John Jerome
Publisher: UPNE
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy New: $6.85
You Save: $9.10 (57%)
New (21) from $6.85
Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 524852
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 155
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.5
ISBN: 0874517559
Dewey Decimal Number: 629.2873
EAN: 9780874517552
ASIN: 0874517559
Publication Date: April 15, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Tight, clean, crisp copy. Like new!
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Product Description
"Know thy gadgets; first step in restoring some kind of wholeness to one's life." So observes John Jerome about his purpose for rebuilding a 1950 Dodge pickup. Yes, he needs the truck to haul manure, but Jerome also hopes that "by knowing every nut, lockwasher, and cotter pin I could have a machine that had some meaning to me." Thus his year-long odyssey under the hood, among the brake shoes and valves, becomes more than a mechanic's memoir; it is a meditation on machines, metaphysics, and the moral universe.
Nearly two decades after publication in 1977, the essential dilemma of Truck still rings true: as Jerome dismantles the aged straight six, he also disassembles our reliance on "two-hundred-dollar appliances that sport flaws in thirty-five-cent parts" and decries the "deliberate encapsulation, impenetrability, of the overtechnologized things with which we furnish our lives." Despite gouged knuckles, a frigid New Hampshire winter, frustrating and inexplicable assemblies, and a close call when the truck rolls off its jacks, he perseveres. In the end, he admits, "I did not find God out there in the barn" among the cans of nuts and bolts." What he does find, however, is that he must make peace with technology; it's a mistake, he says, to "assume there is a point on that line between the caveman's club and the moon shot that marks the moral turnaround, before which technology was somehow benign, after which it is malign." While Jerome gains a truck that runs-sometimes-we gain new insight into a technology that continues to encroach upon our lives.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Enjoyable, but finished it and wanted more December 14, 2004
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
TRUCK reminded me a alot of the book: THE CONTRARY FARMER. Although I enjoyed this book and finished it quickly, I was left wanting more. I related to the author and share many of his original motivations. All in all, the small price of the book will probably save me many hours and dollars by learning from someone else's experience.
 rebuilding November 28, 2003
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a great book for anyone who has or is thinking about rebuilding or restoring a vehicle. John has all the usual troubles and then some! I have read this book probably six times and never tire of it. Well worth you time and gave me many a laugh.
Hysterically funny and useful too! January 15, 2003
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I've read the book five times since buying it, as the humor camouflaged some of the practical gems about rebuilding old trucks. A wonderful curl-up-before-the fireplace read!
For everyone who dreams to be a Gearhead December 5, 2001
It's much more than story it's an experience!
Neat stuff March 19, 2000
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
It was a Christmas gift wrapped in bridal shower paper, but that's My buddy's sense of humor at work. "Truck" really struck a chord with me,as it will with anyone who has ever taken anything apart with the hope of getting it back together. One of those moments was when he'd reached the point of only being able to walk out to the garage and rearrange the tools,then go inside to have a drink and think about it. Man, have I ever been there. There are some similarities with Chris Goodrich's "Roadster", but Jerome is motivated by a sturdy thriftiness,while Goodrich had other issues to deal with. Great book, one of the best gifts I've received and a good addition to the "Auto as Metaphor for Life" section in a gearhead's library.
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