Cadillac Chronicles (review)

Alex's defiance of his ambitious mother's politicking may be sensible, but it has landed him in psychiatric treatment for attention deficit disorder, oppositional defiance disorder, and depression. When Alex's mother invites an elderly black man to come live with them as part of a program she's sponsoring, her plan to look beneficent backfires; Lester is as defiant as Alex, and the two bond in the face of her overbearing ways. When she arranges to send Lester packing, Alex bribes him with a road trip escape to avoid a nursing home, and the two leave New York for points south so Alex can meet his father and Lester can to revisit his hometown and his sister. The road trip banter is enjoyable if predictable, with Lester dispensing wisdom and Alex being more or less receptive. Lester's health is fragile enough for a few suspenseful moments as well as plenty of foreshadowing of the eventual conclusion to this road trip. While the fulfilling of young male fantasies (including a rather gratuitous sex scene that draws on some troubling stereotypes) sometimes undercuts the lessons about racism, homophobia, and white privilege, this road trip hits all the required genre notes for teen male readers—the open road, a hot car with a big engine, getting over your mom and dad, a good fight, virginity loss, and a small dose of heroism. What's fresh is the scene where Alex confronts his psychiatrist; his critique is devastating, timely, and on point, and it will give readers something to cheer about. This doesn't stand up to Brian Meehl's similarly plotted and themed You Don't Know about Me (BCCB 6/11), but it may nevertheless please readers, especially young men who yearn to hit the road themselves.