THE FLAMETHROWERS by Rachel Kushner (fic)

"The Flamethrowers" is as exhilarating as the wild motorcycle ride with which the book opens.  Rachel Kushner uses more similes and metaphors in her writing than any other author I have read.  She uses them with skill and all the power of reality that words can give. The title comes from the flamethrowers that motorcycles hurled during WWI.  They were deathtraps for their riders as well as the enemy. The novel opens at the time of World War I and tells the story of the founder of the Valeria motorcycle company and his romance with motorcycles--motorcycles, speed and sex, the thread carries on throughout the book.

Valeria is only a piece of the story of Reno, a young girl whose real name we never know.  She begins her odyssey on a Valeria motorcycle in Nevada and heads to New York City where she enters the gritty downtown art world of the 1970s.  Kushner is too young to have experienced the lower Manhattan of those days, yet she is spot on in her setting and the eccentric characters who roam in and out of Reno's story.  Reno's coming of age story begins and ends in New York City.  Sandwiched in between is a very realistic portrait of Bellagio and later Rome and the violence that erupted out of the youth movement and union unrest in Italy, a latent response to Fascism and big business.

After arriving in New York, Reno meets Sandro Valeria, an artist, the son of the Valeria patriarch. Shortly after meeting him, Reno returns to the West and realizes a dream of racing at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.  We already know Reno is a risk taker and a recognized talented skier.  On her way to becoming the fastest female rider in the world, setting a record at 140mph, she crashes her bike but escapes serious injury.

Sandro had escaped the confines of his family by settling in Manhattan.  He wants nothing to do with bikes and his sharp tongued mother and entrepreneurial brother.  Somehow Reno convinces him to return to Italy with her where the Valeria company has offered her a chance to compete and become an advertising icon for the company.  First she must meet the family, and this where the story becomes dark and threatening to Reno who will soon lose her naivety and sense of direction.  Sandro's mother is nasty and bitter, and she still has a hold on her sons.  Reno flees to Rome after an eye opening scene at the Valeria factory.  In Rome, she becomes involved with a group  of young terrorists and has a close call with the law. The characters she meets in Italy are as memorable and colorful as those she was involved with in New York.

The ending of the book is somewhat loose, and it is not completely clear where Reno is headed. Nevertheless it is a satisfying ending.  I enjoyed the book very much and Kushner is an accomplished and gifted writer.  She is deserving of the accolades received as well as the honor of being chosen as one of the 10 best books of the year by the NY Times.  I recommend "The Flamethrowers" to all readers.