Driving Sideways

March 24, 2008
This seemingly endless road trip novel has the potential to become a thrill ride, but it makes too many wrong turns and never gets above low gear. After receiving a kidney transplant, 28-year-old Leigh Fielding notices some strange developments: sudden interests in, for instance, graphic novels, kayaking and ethnic food. Convinced she’s channeling the spirit of her donor, Larry Resnick, Leigh decides to go on an “Unfinished Business Tour,” visiting her best friend, an ex-boyfriend and her mother, and tracking down Larry’s family. The notion of Leigh inheriting Larry’s traits and tastes is explored amusingly and a few surprises pop up (a supposedly stranded teenage girl among them), but Riley puts too much stock in Leigh’s voice, which, while sometimes funny, is too self-involved to leave much room for the reader. This particular trip is too long and exhausting for its own good.

April 15, 2008
Leigh Fielding was diagnosed withkidney disease and recently received a transplant. Since then, shes been trying all kinds of new things andcomes to believe that shes channeling the donor, Larry. She decides to leave her central Wisconsin home for a road trip to meet Larrys family and see if hes anything like the new personality she has acquired. Things go awry at the Minnesota border when a teenage girl named Denise steals Leighs purse and uses it to blackmail Leigh into giving her a ride to L.A. On the way they visit classic tourist traps and try to stay out of trouble, especially sinceDenise claims that its her crazy ex in the black sedan that seems to be following them. Leighs road trip continues, embracing bothhighs and lows, alternately hilarious, humiliating, and heartbreaking, often within the same sentence. Smart and funny without being forced, sentimental without being maudlin, Rileys funny, picaresque vision of Americawill makereaders wish they could go along with Leigh on her next trip.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)