Why We Took the Car by Wolfgang Herrndorf (review)

German fourteen-year-old Mike Klingenberg fears that he is both boring and friendless. When he and a raggedy Russian classmate, Tschick, are among the few classmates not invited to the delicious Tatiana’s birthday party, Mike realizes just how low on the social scale he really is. With his mother in rehab again and his father off on holiday with his assistant, Mike can’t think of any good reason not to take off with Tschick in a stolen car for a holiday of his own. As the boys pursue their trek across Germany to nowhere in particular, they meet their share of remarkably kind if slightly odd people, causing Mike to wonder if everything he’s ever heard about stranger danger might have been overblown; the only abuse he receives comes at the hand of his father upon their return after the predictable show-stopping disaster that lands them in trouble with the law. The narrative style in this translated text is completely without imagery or metaphor, save the overarching metaphor of the road trip itself; Mike merely describes everything that happens as it happens while filling in some gaps about his home life. Only towards the end does anything like a theme emerge, as Mike reflects on how unfairness of the class difference between him and Tschick results in their differential treatment under the law, how getting in legal trouble elevates your social status in high school, and how there are worse things than having an alcoholic mother. Readers looking for a buddy road-trip book with more to chew on will do better with Levithan’s Are We There Yet? (BCCB 7/05) or Meehl’s You Don’t Know About Me (BCCB 6/11), but those interested in German teen life and some travel disasters may still find this a diverting outing.