Drive - by Don Tassone (Paperback)

About the Book

Nick Reynolds is a highly successful food company executive, and a bully, feared by employees and estranged from wife and children. After his boss orders him to take the summer off, he sets off, alone, on a road trip from Chicago to Maine.

Book Synopsis

Nick Reynolds is a highly successful food company executive. He's also a bully, feared by his employees and estranged from his wife and children. After his latest blow-up at work, Nick's boss orders him to take the summer off and sort himself out. Angry and despondent, Nick sets off, alone, from his home in Chicago for Bar Harbor, Maine.

This is the story of what Nick experiences, learns and chooses along the way. It is a colorful and moving portrait of a man who must rediscover who he is and decide whether he can go on.

Review Quotes

Don Tassone's Drive is an engaging narrative that is also a compelling metaphor for life. Nick Reynolds is a highly successful yet deeply troubled food company executive. He is a man who is hard to deal with at work and a man who doesn't seem to have a strong sense of what is essential. He is absorbed by himself and feared by his employees. He doesn't enjoy a strong relationship with his wife and children. When he screws up at work, his boss asks him to take some days off, so he sets off alone from his home in Chicago for Bar Harbor, Maine. What happens on the road will blow the minds of readers as Nick Reynolds discovers that the road can be the best form of intersection between his highest dreams and his deepest fears. Follow this character through a journey in which the road reveals a lot about him and prompts a journey toward self-discovery, healing, and redemption.

Nick Reynolds is not a likable protagonist at the outset. However, as the story moves forward, Tassone masterfully peels back the layers of Nick's character, revealing the depths of his inner turmoil. The decision to send Nick on a summer road trip to sort out his life becomes a turning point, and readers are taken along for an unforgettable ride. The road trip itself serves as a metaphorical and literal journey of self-discovery, providing ample opportunity for introspection and growth. Along the way, he encounters strangers who offer messages that challenge his perspective and force him to confront his past actions.

Tassone's prose is elegant and he has the unique ability to capture stunning images of the American landscape, portraying the beauty and diversity of the Eastern United States. The narrative is punctuated by stories from Nick's stops, and the streams of consciousness plunge readers into the psyche of the protagonist. The road is very symbolic ... and I particularly enjoyed the way the author allows [it] to shape the protagonist. One quickly learns that the treasures of a journey are found along the way and not at the journey's end. This book is a powerful story with a lot of wisdom for readers.

One of the biggest challenges I have with certain clients is convincing them to take a vacation from the platitudes and dogmas that have enslaved them. You're dealing with egos and, with egos, the answer to everything is 'more me.' Sometimes the situation calls for less you. After years of corporate drudgery, Drive's Nick Reynolds has finally reached the breaking point in a profit-and-loss life and goes on the lam from his own existence. Tassone's adventures in the realm of big business give him the credentials to examine a man pushed over the edge by everyday stresses. He also has the sly voice to make readers wonder how it will all end for Nick in the same manner we wonder the same thing about ourselves.

When I first read Don Tassone's collection of stories, Get Back, I enjoyed them so much that I was eager to read his novel. Drive did not disappoint. Tassone has the rare ability to make the reader actually enjoy spending time with a central character who at first seems so arrogant and abrasive. That's impressive.